Dharun Ravi: ‘I’m very sorry about Tyler’ in Rutgers spying case

The former Rutgers University students convicted in a webcam spying case that ended in his gay roommate's suicide says he's sorry, but didn't act out of hate.

In an interview published Thursday, the Indian-born Dharun Ravi told The Star-Ledger he wasn't uncomfortable with Tyler Clementi being gay and didn't think about what his spying could mean to his former roommate.

"I'm very sorry about Tyler," he told the newspaper. "I have parents and a little brother, and I can only try to imagine how they feel. But I want the Clementis to know I had no problem with their son. I didn't hate Tyler and I knew he was OK with me. I wanted to talk to his parents, but I was afraid. I didn't know what to say."

More from GlobalPost: Ex-Rutgers student Dharun Ravi found guilty of hate crimes

The interview is Ravi's first in the case that began Sept. 19, 2010, when Ravi used a webcam to view part of Clementi's dormitory room liaison with another man, then tweeted about it: "I saw him making out with a dude. Yay," USA Today reported.

Ravi told friends two days later that they could see streaming live video that night, when Clementi was going to have his guest over again, according to USA Today.

But that second webcast never happened. The next night, Sept. 22, Clementi jumped to his death from a bridge.

More from GlobalPost: Dharun Ravi declines to testify in Tyler Clementi webcam trial

Ravi, 20, was convicted last week on charges including invasion of privacy and anti-gay intimidation. He faces up to 10 years in prison and deportation at his sentencing May 21, CBS News reported.

He told The Star-Ledger he was concerned about the appearance of the 30-year-old man Clementi met online and had invited to their room. The man has been identified only by the initials M.B.

"If it was a girl who came to the room and she looked as strange as M.B., I would have done the same thing," Ravi told the newspaper.