Amos Yee to spend at least one night in remand; seen leaving court in handcuffs

SINGAPORE - Amos Yee, the 16-year-old who posted an online rant about Christianity and made an offensive video about Mr Lee Kuan Yew, was seen being led away in handcuffs following a pre-trial conference on Friday.

Apparently his parents decided against posting bail, which means Amos will have to spend at least one night in remand.

This was after District Judge Kessler Soh changed the $20,000 police bail Amos was on to a court bail during a late afternoon pre-trial conference (PTC), and ordered that only his parents be allowed to act as his bailors because of his age. The prosecution later asked the judge to not restrict the bailors to only his parents, and he agreed.

The judge also set several conditions as part of the bail during the PTC.

Amos was told to take down two Facebook posts made on April 14 along with a blogpost headlined "Donate To Help Amos Yee", through which he hoped to to raise $30,000 for legal fees. He was also required to make private his YouTube video on the late Mr Lee posted on March 27, and his blogpost showing obscene figures on March 28.

Meanwhile, he also has to undertake that while his case is ongoing, he will not post, upload, distribute or by an other means cause to be made visible or available any comment or content, whether directly or indirectly, to any social media or online service or website. He also has to report daily to the investigation officer or designated police officer at Bedok Police Division at 9am should he be out on bail.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Hon Yi and Kelvin Kow appeared for the State.

Mr Hon said that they did not ask for Amos' bail to be revoked. Neither did they ask for his parents to be specifically required to be the bailors.

Amos was charged last month with two charges under the Penal Code for transmitting obscene representation online and causing a video clip to be seen and heard which contained remarks against Christianity with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of Christians in general.

The last charge under the Protection from Harassment Act, accuses him of posting an insulting video clip online containing remarks about Mr Lee, which was intended to be heard and seen by people likely to be distressed by it.

His next pre-trial conference is on May 13. A bail review will be held on Tuesday.

Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.