Amos Yee found guilty; sentencing on June 2

SINGAPORE — The courts found Amos Yee guilty of both charges pressed against him for offensive and obscene online content he had posted but his sentence remains anyone’s guess, given that he initially rejected the punishment prosecutors were seeking.

The teenage blogger yesterday told the judge he did not wish to be considered for probation as his sentence, as proposed by prosecutors — provided he is deemed suitable.

Rather, the 16-year-old’s lawyer asked the court to mete out a fine or sentence him to two weeks’ jail — which would allow him to walk free given he had already spent 18 days in remand because no one posted bail for him.

In the end though, Amos had his first taste of freedom in over two weeks yesterday evening. He relented on the prosecution’s position, but not before some to-ing and fro-ing, and had his bail lowered by two-thirds to S$10,000, which his father posted.

He will now undergo assessments to determine if he is suitable for probation and will return to court on June 2, where he is expected to be sentenced.

During the hearing in the afternoon, which drew crowds that queued up for seats from as early as 8am, prosecutors argued that a fine and jail term were unsuitable for the teenage offender.

With Amos turning down counselling and probation as sentences he should be considered for, District Judge Jasvender Kaur asked to see the defence and prosecution, as well as Amos’ mother, behind closed doors. When the open-court hearing resumed, defence counsel Alfred Dodwell said his client had agreed to a report on his suitability for probation.

After the hearing, Deputy Public Prosecutor Hay Hung Chun told reporters that probation — if deemed appropriate — means Amos will not have to live with the “odium of conviction” or a criminal record.

In convicting Amos of the charge of uploading an obscene image — with the faces of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew superimposed — Ms Kaur said that, given his age, it was reasonable to infer that those who read his blog would include teenagers.

Noting that the image Amos had uploaded depicted two people having anal intercourse, the judge ruled that it would “not only tend to excite teenagers to try out different sexual positions but also deviant sexual activity”.

Singapore’s current societal norms are clearly against sexual experimentation by the young, she added. “Such sexual desires and lascivious thoughts would have a corrupting effect on young minds. Accordingly, I am satisfied that the image has a tendency to corrupt and deprave,” she said.

On the charge related to wounding the religious feelings of Christians, Ms Kaur said Amos’ comments about Jesus Christ in a video clip he uploaded are clearly derogatory and offensive to Christians.

The defence had argued that the prosecution had not produced evidence to show Christians’ feelings were hurt, but the judge said “the offence is complete once an utterance is made with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings”.

She found that Amos, who had spent two to three days scripting his video, had deliberately intended to denigrate both Jesus Christ and the late Mr Lee by making up alleged similarities between both figures.

Amos was given a discharge amounting to an acquittal for a third charge for uploading content containing remarks about Mr Lee intended to be seen by people who would be distressed by it. As part of his conviction, Amos must take down the offending post and video, but he may now post other content on the Internet while out on bail.

After Amos emerged from the lock-up nearly two hours after the hearing concluded, cameras flashed relentlessly and the media tailed him as he walked out of the State Courts with his parents and some supporters.

A supporter handed him a red packet, and Amos also spoke briefly with blogger Roy Ngerng.

Before he boarded a seven-seater taxi with his parents, Amos, clad in a navy blue T-shirt and khaki bermudas, told reporters: “I’m conflicted, I don’t know if I should celebrate my release or mourn my (conviction).”