Singaporean Blogger Amos Yee, Given Asylum in US, Faces Child Porn Charges; To be Deported?

Singapore-based blogger, 20-year-old Amos Yee has been arrested and charged with child porn in the United States of America. He has been charged with solicitation and possession of child porn Leighton Criminal Courthouse, in Illinois on October 16. The court has set bail at US$1 million. Till the trial gets completed Yee has been banned from using the Internet. If convicted in the case, his asylum can be revoked and he might get deported.

He is currently in the U.S. after the country granted him asylum. Activist Melissa Chen helped Yee get an asylum after he was detained by Chicago by immigration officials at O'Hare Airport in on Dec. 16, 2016. He was jailed twice in Singapore in 2015 and 2016 in cases of hurting religious sentiments. He has been living in Chicago, U.S. since 2017 after a political asylum was granted to him.

Exposing Pedophile Activities of Yee

He had allegedly exchanged nude photos and messages with a 14-year-old Texas girl. Prosecutors are said that they have obtained the messages Yee and the minor girl exchanged between April and July, 2019. These documents also include nude photos of him and the girl that were exchanged over the phone.

Prosecutors said that the girl had repeatedly told him about her age, but Yee had coaxed her to remove her age from WahtsApp profile and requested her to send nude photos. But after they broke up, the girl exposed him in the group called "interested in exposing pedophiles". Soon Homeland Security officials were notified about the incident.

Interestingly, the public defender who represented Yee described him as an internet troll and argued that his comments should be taken with skepticism. Reports claim that Yee intervened the court proceeding and tried to defend himself multiple times. Assistant public defender repeatedly warned him and when he it did not stop intervening, Yee was asked to keep his mouth shut.

Running pro-Paedophile Forum?

Prosecutor revealed that Yee had advocated for pedophiles when he was residing in the U.S. He is said to have run a pro-pedophile forum on the YouTube channel. Yee had also boasted of having a relationship with 14-year-old girl and said that there was nothing immoral about pedophilia.

New York-based Singaporean activist Melissa Chen, who was the former advocate of Yee took to social media to confirm that she was behind getting Yee arrested. Though she helped Yee get political asylum in the U.S., she'd learnt about his alleged illegal activities in 2019. A community called Minor-Attracted People hunters alerted her about Yee.

Chen is said to have spoken to the young victim and took the decision to bring him under the book. "After speaking with the young victim, I was broken. I vowed to do all I could to get her justice and remove him from society," she wrote. Chen has also called for him to be deported. Yee's next hearing has been scheduled on November 5.