Amos Yee pleads guilty to flouting police orders
Amos Yee arriving at the State Court, on Aug 17, 2016. Photo: Robin Choo/TODAY
SINGAPORE — After two days of trial, teenage blogger Amos Yee made a sudden turnaround and pleaded guilty to two of his eight charges on Tuesday (Aug 23).
These were for failing to turn up at a police station for investigations between December last year and May this year, despite being notified by the authorities.
His trial for the remaining six charges of wounding the religious feelings of Muslims and Christians continued yesterday afternoon.
A district court heard how Amos tried to skip town twice — but succeeded only once — despite the police order.
According to court documents, the 17-year-old was served a notice at his home on Dec 12 last year, informing him to show up at Jurong Police Division two days later for an interview.
But Amos left for Hong Kong at around 4:30am on Dec 13, where he published several online posts about being served the notice.
After he returned to Singapore on April 20 this year, the police served Amos a warrant, instructing him to attend an interview on May 10 at the same police station.
The day before the interview, he tried to leave town again and was stopped at Changi Airport. His passport was also confiscated by the authorities.
Amos was arrested by the police on May 11, after missing the second interview.
The prosecution’s sentencing submissions and Amos’ mitigation plea for these two counts will be heard on Sept 14.
For failing to turn up at the police station in spite of an order, he could be jailed up to a month and fined up to S$1,500.
As his hearing resumed in the afternoon, the court was told that 24 police reports had been filed against Amos, in relation to the remaining six charges against him.
A police statement recorded around 7pm on the day of his arrest showed that out of 57 questions posed to Amos, he only answered two. He either nodded his head without saying anything or refused to answer the rest of the time.
So far, five witnesses have been called.
The prosecution is expected to close its case today.
The blogger was convicted of similar offences last year and was sentenced to four weeks’ jail.
