SINGAPORE: On Nov 7, Amos Yee had been scheduled for release from jail in the United States, but was remanded in custody on the same day.
However, by the evening of Nov 20, Singapore time, the Singaporean blogger was released on parole, from the Illinois Department of Corrections, based on a notification issued by the Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE).
And now, Yee, 27, is facing deportation to Singapore, according to The Straits Times. Although the United States granted him asylum a decade ago, this could be revoked given his criminal record.
In 2023, CNA asked the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement about his asylum status and possible deportation. ICE declined to comment during the time “due to privacy concerns.”
Yee previously said that he intends to return to Singapore, even though he knows he would have to serve time there for defaulting on his National Service obligations. For failing to enlist, he faces a fine of up to S$10,000, a three-year jail term, or both.
Amos Yee’s backstory
In 2015, when Yee was only 16, he gained notoriety in Singapore when he criticised the government as well as a number of religious figures. He also criticised the late Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding Prime Minister.
Yee ended up being jailed twice for his actions and moved to the US in December 2016, just before he was required to begin National Service. He was granted political asylum the following year after a judge ruled that he faced persecution in Singapore for his political opinions.
In October 2020, he was charged with solicitation and possession of child pornography. After his arrest, he pleaded not guilty in a Chicago court to all charges related to his arrest.
Yee was then accused of having exchanged nude photos and “thousands” of messages with a teenage girl from Texas while he was living in Chicago, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Prosecutors said they obtained messages Yee and the girl exchanged between April and July 2019 that included nude photos he requested and received from the girl and nude photos of himself that he sent to her.
The prosecutors added that the girl repeatedly mentioned her age in the messages, but Yee instructed her to remove her age from her profile on WhatsApp.
When their relationship eventually soured, she reached out to a group interested in exposing pedophiles, and that led to his arrest. /TISG
Read also: Amos Yee readmitted into US jail on the same day he was granted parole
