A day after a new YouTube video upload (in which more tips were given on how to escape National Service — mostly through feigning mental illness), subversive teen blogger Amos Yee was arrested.
His former lawyer Alfred Dodwell confirmed that the 17-year-old was apprehended yesterday. Without confirming his identity, police noted that he was arrested for offences under Sections 174 and 298 of the Penal Code. Meaning he was nabbed for failing to attend an interview for an investigation and uttering words with an intent to wound religious and racial feelings.
The part about making insensitive comments refers to his online remarks made in November 2015, say the police, containing offensive and disparaging remarks against various religious communities.
The “offensive remarks” made were allegedly made in Yee’s blog post, which was made in response to Calvin Cheng’s remarks on Facebook which called out for the killing of terrorist’s children. The blog post itself was Yee’s own critical analysis of Cheng’s logic, and contained a offhand remark against Islam.
The police also confirmed that Yee had indeed fled the country for a period of time after failing to report to a police station, and only returned here back in April. That should explain his short hiatus and sudden re-appearance online last month.
Earlier this month, Yee uploaded a video in which some police officers appeared at his front door, handing him a warrant for him to attend police investigations on Tuesday. It seems that he didn’t, and that prompted the arrest yesterday.
More details to come.
