Amos Yee back in court, faces eight charges
Blogger Amos Yee was back in court yesterday and charged with eight new offences.
Yee, 17, is accused of five counts of wounding the religious feelings of Muslims online. A sixth charge accuses him of offending Christians.
Yee allegedly uploaded offensive pictures, videos and posts on Facebook, YouTube and blog site WordPress between last November and earlier this month.
He also faces two charges of failing to turn up at Jurong Police Division in December and earlier this month despite being served a notice and warrant of attendance.
The police said he was arrested on May 11.
Yesterday, Yee was at the State Courts with his mother Mary Toh, 49, who is his bailor.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Kelvin Kow called for an urgent hearing date, saying Yee was escalating his offensive behaviour to get attention. DPP Kow added Yee had also upped the tempo and offensiveness of his posts.
Yee was not represented by a lawyer and claimed in court he would not post such content any more. He added he would try to engage a lawyer as he intended to claim trial.
His court appearance comes less than a year after he was jailed four weeks for posting content intending to wound the feelings of Christians and uploading an obscene image.
Yee is expected back in court on Monday for a pre-trial conference.
If convicted, he faces up to three years' jail, with fine, for each charge of hurting religious feelings.
He can be jailed up to a month and fined up to $1,500 for failing to report to the police division.
- Ronald Loh
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