‘Internet troll’ Amos Yee charged with child porn
The former Singaporean national was granted asylum in the U.S. after he was jailed twice overseas as a teenager for his controversial posts
Blogger, YouTuber and all around “internet troll” Amos Yee allegedly exchanged nude photos and “thousands” of messages with a 14-year-old Texas girl while he was living in Chicago.
The 20-year-old Singaporean national, who appeared at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse Friday for solicitation and possession of child porn charges, gained international fame when he was jailed at 16 in his home country for controversial and obscene online posts he made following the death of the Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 2015. He was jailed again in 2016 for “wounding religious feelings” over his social media posts on on Christianity and Islam, according to an
NPR.
Yee fled Singapore and was granted asylum in the United States after being detained at O’Hare Airport by immigration officials. He has been living in Chicago for about three years, Cook County prosecutors said.
Amos Yee faces deportation if convicted of child porn charges
Singaporean Amos Yee allegedly exchanged nude photos with a 14-year-old Texas girl while in Chicago. He was jailed twice in Singapore, in 2015 and 2016, for wounding religious feelings. He has been living in the United States after being granted asylum there in 2017.PHOTO: CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTME
Singaporean blogger Amos Yee, 20, was charged with solicitation and possession of child pornography in an Illinois court on Friday, according to local media reports.
Yee, who was jailed twice in Singapore, in 2015 and 2016, for wounding religious feelings, was granted asylum in the United States in 2017 and has been living in Chicago since then.
He allegedly exchanged nude photos and thousands of messages with a 14-year-old Texas girl while in Chicago, reported the
Chicago Sun-Times daily newspaper.
Amos Yee charged with child porn in the US: Report
Yee, 20, appeared at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse for a bond hearing on Friday
Singaporean Amos Yee, who was granted asylum in the United States three years ago, has been charged with solicitation and possession of child porn in the US, according to the
Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.
Yee - who was jailed in Singapore in 2015 and 2016 for hate speech against both Christians and Muslims - allegedly exchanged nude photographs and “thousands” of messages with a 14-year-old Texas girl while living in Chicago, the newspaper wrote on Friday (Oct 16).
If convicted, Yee’s asylum status could be revoked.
Amos Yee in US court for child porn charges
Photo of Amos Yee from Chicago Police and screenshot of Amos Yee's twitter account before it was removed
20-year old Singaporean Amos Yee who was granted asylum in United States, has been brought to Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago on Friday (16 Oct) for solicitation and possession of child porn charges.
According to
Chicago Suntimes (CST), Yee allegedly exchanged nude photos and “thousands” of messages with a 14-year-old Texas girl while he was living in Chicago. According to Cook County prosecutors, the blogger and Youtuber has been living in Chicago for about three years.
Yee then generated controversy in the U.S. when he began posting to his now-removed YouTube channel and Twitter advocating for pedophiles, and was subsequently banned or blocked from using these two social media platforms. His Facebook account was also removed as a result of his activities. Prosecutors said Yee also ran a pro-pedophile forum on a message board – which the service provider also took action by shutting down the server, as well as the accounts of everyone involved in it.
Amos Yee charged in US court for solicitation and possession of child porn
Amos Yee after his release from detention in Chicago in 2017. (PHOTO: Reuters/Chris Kenning)
Singaporean blogger Amos Yee, who gained notoriety for being jailed for controversial social media posts in 2015 and 2016, was charged with solicitation and possession of child porn in an Illinois court on Friday (16 October).
According to Chicago Sun Times, the 20-year-old allegedly exchanged nude photos and “thousands” of messages with a 14-year-old Texas girl while he was living in Chicago. Prosecutors said they obtained messages Yee exchanged between April and July 2019 with the girl, who repeatedly brought up her age. Yee had also instructed the teenager to remove her age from her profile on WhatsApp in the messages.
When their relationship eventually soured and the girl reached out to a group “interested in exposing pedophiles”, Homeland Security officials were notified, prosecutors said. Yee was taken into custody on Thursday at his home.
U.S. Grants Asylum To Amos Yee, Young Blogger From Singapore
Amos Yee, a blogger who fled Singapore, spoke to reporters outside of the U.S. immigration field office in Chicago on Tuesday after being released from federal custody
Amos Yee, a teenage blogger who shot to fame after posting a video celebrating the death of Singapore's founding ruler, has been granted asylum in the U.S., after spending nine months in immigration detention. The 18-year-old fled Singapore, which has strict laws governing speech and public expression, because he feared persecution.
Yee came to the U.S. after spending two weeks-long stints in prison in Singapore. In the end, though, he was detained by the U.S. government for months longer than he had been imprisoned in his home country. A U.S. immigration judge had initially granted Yee's request for asylum back in March. But the Department of Homeland Security appealed that ruling, and Yee was then held in detention centers run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals recently dismissed the federal agency's appeal, agreeing with immigration Judge Samuel Cole that Singapore's criminal charges against Yee were a "pretext" to silence him. It also said Singapore's treatment of Yee had risen to the level of persecution — a finding DHS had contested. Yee was 16 when he was first arrested; the appeals board noted that his treatment included "being imprisoned with only adults and being placed in a mental institution with difficult conditions."
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