Amos Yee makes about-turn, pleads guilty to 3 remaining charges

SINGAPORE — Teenage blogger Amos Yee pleaded guilty to the remaining three charges of wounding the religious feelings of Muslims on Wednesday (Sept 28).

The 17-year-old initially contested all eight of the criminal charges filed against him — six of which are for wounding the religious feelings of Muslims and Christians, and another two are for failing to turn up at a police station for investigations despite orders from the police.

But on the third day of his trial last month, he decided to plead guilty to the two counts of failing to turn up at Jurong Police Division on Dec 14 last year and May 10 this year, despite the police orders.

The following day, he pleaded guilty to another three charges for insulting Muslims and Christians, but indicated that he wanted to fight the remaining three similar charges.

But when Amos returned to court on Wednesday, he admitted to these remaining offences, which took place between April 17 and May 19.

On April 17, he uploaded a photo on his Facebook account which showed him holding the Quran in one hand and making an offensive gesture with the other.

He also uploaded two videos on his YouTube channel on May 8 and May 19 which had content that was intended to wound the feelings of Muslims in Singapore, noted the prosecution.

These posts were accessible to the general public and on some occasions, police reports were lodged after these posts were made.

Amos will be back in court today for the prosecution to submit on his sentence and for the court to take his mitigation plea. Since the start of his trial last month, court proceedings were dogged by his changing stance.

For instance, he had requested for a Criminal Case Resolution — where parties meet to discuss how to resolve the case early on — which fell through.

For wounding religious feelings, Amos can be jailed up to three years, fined or both. For disobeying an order to appear at the police station, he could be jailed up to a month, fined S$1,500, or both.

Amos was convicted of similar charges last year and was sentenced to four weeks’ jail.