One of Singapore’s most infamous and notorious sons, Amos Yee, known for his controversial past, is once again in the headlines.
Just one month after his release on parole halfway through serving his prison sentence in the United States, Yee found himself back in custody.
On November 7, CNA reported that Yee had been admitted under the custody and control of the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to Channel NewsAsia.
On November 8, Singapore time, news of Amos Yee’s return to custody emerged, with reports stating that he was held at the Stateville Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison located in Crest Hill, Illinois.
Reason for his rearrest
A “mentor-figure” to Yee shared that he had received a text from the US prison authorities that the latter had been rearrested, and shed light on what he thinks happened.
“Today I got a text from the prison authorities that Amos has been rearrested.
So I called his house, and his housemate answered. He said he was coming back from the store at ~11 a.m. when he saw Amos being handcuffed by police officers.
He asked Amos and the officers what happened, all of them kept quiet and kept on moving. They took all of Amos’ belongings too.
If I were to guess, some Singaporean tipped off the Illinois Department of Corrections about his online activities and linked his latest blog post.
Especially the bit about where he intends to reoffend. Technically not a violation of his parole, but it’s the “going online” part that violated his parole conditions.
His latest mugshots, as of today.
For those who are awaiting his return, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to wait until at least October 2026.”
The blog posts
On 23 October, Yee published a blog post stating that he is planning to return to Singapore. Then on 5 November, he published another blog post titled “6 Impressive Things I Want To Do”, before adding that he has a goal of defending pedophiles on the list.
Is is believed that his blog posts were in violation of his parole conditions, resulting in him being rearrested.
Yee’s Conviction and Parole
Yee, at the age of 25, had been serving a six-year jail term in the United States. He was convicted after being found guilty of grooming a teenage girl online and soliciting explicit photographs from her.
Yee’s case dates back to 2019 when he was convicted for engaging in an “online courtship” with a 14-year-old girl. During this period, he repeatedly asked her for explicit images, fully aware of her age. Shockingly, Yee went on to distribute these photographs online, adding to the gravity of his actions.
As part of a plea deal, Yee had pleaded guilty to charges of grooming and possessing obscene photos of children.
In exchange, 16 other charges were dismissed, but his jail term was backdated to October 2020 when he was arrested by US marshals.