Linux – pure-ftpd symlink not working

I've got a setup where pure-ftpd is allowing symlink.

what works

/var/www/some_website/symlink_to_logs works and resolves to /var/log/some_website_logs/

(this is to show that symlinks are allowed and resolved). Also, creating symlinks to other folders such as /home/temp/ would work fine

what doesn't work

/var/www/some_website/symlink_to_backups that resolves to /var/log/some_website_backups/

that gives a Permission denied error when browsing with a FTP client (Filezilla).

permissions are set to be at least r (as in r-wr-wr–) to /var , /var/log and /var/log/some_website_backups so why the error?

any thoughts would be greatly appreciated as i'm currently stuck.

edit : the error shows up when browsing using a FTP client (Filezilla)

edit 2 : i tried mounting the folder with mount --bind in the FTP dir (so it'd show up as another directory) and i still get Permission denied.

edit 3 : namei -m symlink_to_backups

      f: symlink_to_backups
         lrwxrwxrwx symlink_to_backups-> /var/log/some_website_backups
            drwxr-xr-x /
            drwxr-xr-x var
            drwxr-xr-- log
            drw-rw-r-- some_website_backups