Polemical teen vlogger Amos Yee plead guilty to charges of failing to show up to a police summons in Singapore yesterday, but still faces six charges of “wounding religious feelings” in a trial that is expected to wrap up soon.
Polemical teen vlogger Amos Yee plead guilty to charges of failing to show up to a police summons in Singapore yesterday, but still faces six charges of “wounding religious feelings” in a trial that is expected to wrap up soon.
Yee announced his decision on Twitter this afternoon:
I pleaded guilty in court for not going to the police station because I did not go to the police station. That’s a couple of weeks in jail
The 17-year-old is on trial for posting five videos and one photograph that were deemed insulting to religious feelings as they targeted both Islam and Christianity, according to the Straits Times. He also twice failed to turn up for a police summons, on December 14, 2015 and May 10, 2016.
He is also representing himself at trial, with assistance from his mother, although he could have applied to Singapore’s Law Society for pro-bono legal assistance, according to a spokesperson for the society.
The Law Society administers the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme (here) where impecunious accused persons charged with listed non-capital offences can be assigned pro bono legal representation – subject to means & merits testing – by a volunteer lawyer. We have no record that Mr Amos Yee has approached the Law Society for assistance or representation. In Singapore, like other jurisdictions, lawyers are permitted to either accept or decline to act in a matter.
Amos Yee made international news last year when he went on trial for making an explicative-laden video about the death of Lee Kwan Yew, Singapore’s founding father. After a chaotic trial, he was sentenced to two weeks at a mental health facility, bringing condemnation from the United Nations and Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House.
He was arrested again this May for publishing a series of videos with titles like “Responding to the common bullshit of Christians” and “Refuting Islam with their own Quran” on Youtube that led 24 people to file complaints against him, according to Yee. The Online Citizen has a handy chart of all his latest charges.
The internet, at least, seems to love him. “Refuting Islam” received 420,552 views on Youtube. In the video, Yee reads some controversial quotes from the Koran and gives a running commentary with a lot of “f*cks” in it. He does the same with the Bible in “Responding to the common bullshit of Christians,” which has received 326,013 views so far.
Amos Yee has also raised some serious questions about free speech in Singapore, as his videos could easily be described as “vitriolic”. He’s turned the internet on its head in a country where the media is classified as ”Not Free” by Freedom House, a US-based organisation that monitors media freedom around the world. Its internet has also earned the score of “partly free”.
