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Amos Yee pleads not guilty to both charges

SINGAPORE — He saw a huge outpouring of grief online after Mr Lee Kuan Yew died on March 23, with many praising the former Prime Minister’s contributions to modern Singapore. This piqued teenage blogger Amos Yee Pang Sang’s interest and he decided to find out more about Mr Lee.

Amos Yee leaving the State Courts with his parents on March 31, 2015. Photo: Channel NewsAsia

Amos Yee leaving the State Courts with his parents on March 31, 2015. Photo: Channel NewsAsia

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SINGAPORE — He saw a huge outpouring of grief online after Mr Lee Kuan Yew died on March 23, with many praising the former Prime Minister’s contributions to modern Singapore. This piqued teenage blogger Amos Yee Pang Sang’s interest and he decided to find out more about Mr Lee.

His curiosity was “probably heightened” during a meeting two weeks earlier with some members of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), the 16-year-old told the police in a statement taken hours after his arrest on March 29 for content posted online.

Amos faces two charges for posting an obscene image featuring Mr Lee and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and a video clip intended to hurt the religious feelings of Christians. Yesterday, details of his motivation and the events leading up to his posting of the offending materials online emerged from a voluntarily-given police statement, which was among documents tendered in court at the start of a two-day trial.

A third charge, for posting a video containing remarks about Mr Lee intended to be seen by people likely to be distressed by it, has been stood down.

Since his arrest on March 29, the case has attracted much public interest. Yesterday before the hearing started, the courtroom at the State Courts was packed with a queue forming outside. The hearing was brief: It lasted about 20 minutes, with Amos pleading not guilty to both charges.

In his statement to the police, Amos said that a friend and SDP volunteer called “Brandon” had invited him for dinner, which took place after a party walkabout in Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representation Constituency. The SDP members talked to him about “flaws” in the Singapore system, such as with the Central Provident Fund (CPF), he said.

“My disagreement with the manner in which formal education is conducted, which explained my decision to drop out of school, was probably also an emotional catalyst for my opinions towards Lee Kuan Yew,” stated the former Zhonghua Secondary School student in the police statement.

He said that a party member also told him about the work of blogger Roy Ngerng, who has written about the CPF and is being sued by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for defamation.

Amos told the police that he spent a few days writing, filming and editing a video that made references to Mr Lee and Jesus Christ.

He was “slightly apprehensive” that what he was doing might be illegal, and told Brandon and another friend, Mr Ngan Wai Lit, about parts of the video. According to Amos, Brandon said it was offensive but did not comment on whether it was illegal, while Mr Ngan said he was unsure if uploading the video would be criminal.

The teenager then looked up the Sedition Act. “I remained unsure as to the legality of my video. I wish to state that I was aware that the contents of the video were seditious in nature, in that they raised discontent or disaffection amongst people practising the Christian faith in Singapore, but was not sure if my actions would land me in jail,” he told the police.

Amos also told his mother he was making a video criticising Mr Lee but did not go into specifics. She advised him not to upload it but he went ahead.

After uploading it on March 28, Amos sent now-defunct website The Real Singapore a Facebook message to share his video. The video went viral and he received hate messages. However, he felt that “despite the hatred and ill-will generated”, it opened up a larger avenue for critical discussion about Mr Lee.

Amos said he also learnt that Mrs Thatcher had once said Mr Lee was always right, and felt she had “an uncanny liking” for Mr Lee. He went on Facebook to ask for photos of the two leaders, then decided to superimpose their faces on an allegedly obscene image he found online.

“I felt that it was a funny, shocking and effective way of making fun of Margaret Thatcher’s statement about Lee Kuan Yew being right all the time, and that in turn would encourage more people to openly criticise and make fun of their political leaders, which opens up a larger avenue for critical analysis and positive change in Singapore,” he stated.

He told the police that he was the sole creator of the content in question.

Defence lawyer Alfred Dodwell tendered three exhibits to the court. He later told reporters that one was a “similar image” from the South African edition of a magazine called Women’s Health, and two were caricatures meant to show satire.

District Judge Jasvender Kaur adjourned the hearing after directing both sides to address the test of obscenity by showing the tendency to corrupt, and who the targets were. Both sides will make further submissions today.

If convicted, Amos faces up to three months’ jail and a fine for posting the obscene image, and up to three years’ jail and a fine for wounding the religious feelings of Christians.

Yesterday’s hearing comes after several developments since his arrest. They include a stranger discharging himself as Amos’ bailor after the teenager refused to abide by bail conditions, and another stranger slapping him outside the State Courts. On Wednesday, Amos’ bid to vary his bail conditions was dismissed by the High Court.

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