KUALA LUMPUR – Singaporean blogger Amos Yee who was granted asylum in the United States has been sentenced by an Illinois court to six years in jail for two charges of child pornography and grooming.
He also had 16 other child pornography-related charges dismissed after he accepted a plea deal offered in October. However, the offer was not disclosed.
According to reports, Yee, who lives in Chicago, the main city in Illinois, appeared in court via video link and was advised by judge Carol Howard to plead guilty.
However, the charges mean that he can be deported, denied permission to reenter the US, or be denied naturalisation as a US citizen in the future.
He was told that he will not be able to get housing, employment, and other licences, including a driver’s licence.
He remained almost silent during the 20-minute hearing, only giving yes or no replies, and declined to speak before the judge imposed his sentence.
In the first charge of child pornography, Yee was accused of soliciting, persuading, and inducing the victim to pose in lewd positions on video and other media.
The victim, only 14 during the incident, was persuaded to role-play his sexual fantasies. This occurred between February and July 2019, just two years after he was granted asylum in 2017.
He was charged with a class one felony, the second most serious offence under Illinois criminal law that carries a sentence of four to 15 years’ prison.
In the second charge, Yee groomed the victim through seduction to pose for photographs, which he later distributed over WhatsApp. This happened during the same period as the first charge.
The minimum jail time for the second offence is one year, and can be extended to three years.
Yee has 30 days to file an appeal.
Before arriving in the US in 2016 and being granted asylum in 2017, he was jailed twice in Singapore for harassment and insulting a religious group in 2015, and for similar charges in 2016. – The Vibes, December 3, 2021
