US deports Singaporean vlogger convicted of child sex offences

The Singaporean man who many in his country remember for his controversial rants insulting founding leader Lee Kuan Yew has been deported from the US to face charges back home.

Amos Yee was granted asylum in the US in 2017 after being imprisoned twice in Singapore over videos that criticised state authorities and religion.

But in 2020, he was again jailed in the US for possessing child pornography and grooming a 14-year-old girl. Immigration authorities took custody of Yee in November after he was released on parole.

The 27-year-old is due to appear before a Singapore court on Friday and is expected to be charged for skipping mandatory military conscription, according to court documents.

It is unclear if he faces further charges in Singapore beyond breaching the conscription law.

Yee rose to notoriety in Singapore in 2015, days after the death of Lee Kuan Yew, when he posted a video criticising the former prime minister's legacy.

The expletive-laden video likened Lee to Jesus Christ, and criticised Christians in general – a serious crime in a country that takes pride in maintaining racial and religious harmony.

Yee, then 16, also posted a crude cartoon depicting Lee having sex with former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, a personal and political ally of Lee's.

Yee was swiftly charged and jailed after at least 30 people lodged police reports against him.

But he also amassed a fair share of supporters who saw him as a free speech advocate, in a country that critics say have tightened the screws against dissent and criticism over the years. Several strangers even offered to post bail for Yee.

He was granted asylum in the US despite opposition from the Department of Homeland Security. The immigration appeals board ruled then that Yee had a "well-founded fear of future persecution in Singapore".

But he ran afoul of the law again in the US. He was arrested in 2020 for possessing child pornography and grooming a 14-year-old girl whom he befriended online.

A court in Illinois heard that Yee had used WhatsApp to "seduce, solicit and lure" the victim and distributed photographs of her online.

In November he was taken into custody by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He signed his deportation papers last month, according to Singapore media.

Yee was listed among the "worst of the worst criminal aliens arrested by ICE" on a new website US authorities launched in December.

Singapore's Enlistment Act mandates that all male citizens and second-generation permanent residents must serve full-time in the military for two years, usually starting the year they turn 18 – which, for Yee, would have been the year he was granted asylum in the US.