Amos Yee
Singaporean sex offender / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Amos Yee Pang Sang (Chinese: 余澎杉; pinyin: Yú Péngshān, born 31 October 1998)[lower-alpha 1] is a Singaporean convicted sex offender and former blogger, YouTuber, and child actor.[5][9]
Amos Yee | |||||||||||
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余澎杉 | |||||||||||
Born | Amos Yee Pang Sang (1998-10-31) 31 October 1998 (age 25)[1][2] | ||||||||||
Criminal status | Rearrested after parole violation | ||||||||||
Conviction(s) | Singapore:
United States: | ||||||||||
Criminal penalty | Singapore:
United States:
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Imprisoned at | Danville Correctional Center | ||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 余澎杉 | ||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 余澎杉 | ||||||||||
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In late March 2015, shortly after the death of Lee Kuan Yew, who is the former Prime Minister of Singapore, Yee uploaded a video on YouTube criticising Lee.[10] In the video, Yee compared Lee to Jesus Christ. Yee also uploaded to his blog an image depicting Lee and Margaret Thatcher engaged in anal sex.[11] A subsequent 32 police reports[12] resulted in Yee being arrested in Singapore and charged with "intention of wounding the religious feelings of Christians", obscenity, and "threatening, abusive or insulting communication."
Yee's trial drew significant public interest[13] and the court found him guilty in May 2015,[14] meting a jail sentence of four weeks[6][7] which was backdated to include 53 days served in remand, freeing Yee immediately following the trial.[15][12] Yee appealed against both the court conviction and sentence.[16] Yee's imprisonment drew criticism from human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, which considered Yee to be a "prisoner of conscience".[17][18]
In August 2016, Yee was arrested for the second time and stood trial over six charges for deliberate intent to wound religious feelings and two charges for failure to turn up for police interviews.[3] In September 2016, Yee was sentenced to 6 weeks' jail and fined $2,000 for wounding religious feelings, under Section 298 of the Penal Code. The presiding judge said that Yee's actions could "generate social unrest" and should not be condoned. Yee began serving his jail term on 13 October 2016.[8]
In December 2016, Yee fled to the United States just before his call-up for National Service, immediately seeking political asylum. It was granted in March 2017 by the Chicago immigration court,[19] despite being opposed by the U.S. federal government, which appealed the decision, causing Yee to be held in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the appeal process.[20] Following an immigration appeals court's decision to uphold his bid for asylum, Yee was released in September 2017.[21]
In November 2017, Yee received death threats for supporting pedophilia in videos and blog posts.[22] In May 2018, Yee's channel was removed by YouTube for violating community guidelines[23] and Twitter suspended his account.[24] In July 2018, Yee's Patreon account was shut down.[25] As of December 2018, Yee's WordPress blog and personal Facebook page[26] were shut down.[27] In October 2020, Yee was arrested in Illinois on charges of solicitation in a case involving a 14-year-old, and possession of child pornography;[28][29] he eventually pled guilty to two charges of child grooming and child pornography in exchange for a sentence of six years in prison, which he began serving in December 2021 at the Illinois River Correctional Center.[5][30] He was released on parole on 7 October 2023,[31] but was rearrested for violating parole conditions a month later, and was transferred to the Stateville Correctional Centre.[32] In December 2023, he was transferred again to Danville Correctional Center.[33]