Pakistan-born Shabir Ahmed, the rape gang ringleader recently released in the UK after serving a prison term for dozens of child sex offenses, committed his crimes because of his upbringing in England, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday.

The 73-year-old, who first came to the UK as a teenager, was a leading figure in the Rochdale grooming gang, which sexually abused and trafficked British girls as young as 12 in the Greater Manchester borough during the 2000s.

Ahmed was released from prison under supervision in early June after serving 14 years. British authorities have been unable to deport him because of a provision protecting certain Commonwealth citizens who were resident in the UK before 1973, despite his British citizenship having been revoked following his 2012 convictions.

“The matter in question is entirely an internal matter of the United Kingdom,” Andrabi said at a press briefing.

Regardless of where [Ahmed] was born, the onus lies on where he grew up, was raised, groomed, and, unfortunately, was spoiled... His heinous crimes demand serious introspection rather than a quest to search for extraneous causes.

The spokesman stressed that Islamabad strongly condemns child sexual abuse, which should be “punished to the fullest extent of the law, irrespective of race, ethnicity, or religion,” but insisted that Pakistan “has no connection whatsoever with this matter” and “cannot be associated” with any related decisions.

On Monday, UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans to amend the Immigration Act to remove the legal barrier preventing Ahmed’s deportation.

The Rochdale rape gang was one of many grooming gangs, predominantly composed of men of Pakistani origin, that systematically raped and sexually trafficked vulnerable young British girls across the UK over decades.

The grooming gangs scandal returned to the spotlight of British politics last year, forcing the Labour government to announce a nationwide inquiry, which unearthed “blindness, ignorance, prejudice, defensiveness” and systematic failures by police and public bodies to protect victims and act on reports of abuse.