SINGAPORE: Child sex offender Amos Yee was offered bail of S$10,000 on Thursday (March 26) amid allegations that he had left Singapore without a valid permit for more than nine years.
Yee, who appeared in court via video-link, was deported from the US on March 19.
The 27-year-old appeared in a Singapore district court the next day and was handed three charges under the Enlistment Act.
According to court documents in Singapore, Yee had failed to report for the national service pre-enlistment medical screening and remained outside the country without a valid exit permit after leaving for the US in December 2016 to seek asylum.
Yee is said to have left Singapore without a valid exit permit from Dec 13, 2015, to April 19, 2016, and from Dec 15, 2016, to March 19, 2026.
During this period, he allegedly failed to report for national service medical screening from April 26, 2016, to March 19, 2026.
Yee fled to the US after repeated run-ins with the law in Singapore over comments that he had made that were derogatory to Christians and Muslims.
In March 2018, he was granted asylum in the US, and in September that year, he was released from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.
However, he was indicted by a grand jury in an Illinois court for solicitation and possession of child pornography two years later.
According to media reports, he had exchanged nude photos and messages with a 14-year-old girl from Texas while he was in Chicago.
Yee was sentenced on Dec 2, 2021.
He was released on parole on Oct 7, 2023, halfway into his six-year jail term, but was re-arrested the following month.
It is believed that he had broken the terms of his parole, which included restrictions that barred access to the Internet without approval from the state corrections department, and from being near a place where children would be, unless the department allowed it.
In the lead up to his recent deportation, Yee was transferred to various ICE facilities, with the most recent on March 18, when he was taken to the Broadview Service Staging Area in Illinois.
His record on the ICE website was expunged on March 19, and he was removed from the US the same day.
Yee was arrested by enlistment inspectors from the Central Manpower Base upon his arrival at Changi Airport, the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement on March 20.
The authorities said he was issued a document of identity to facilitate his return, in lieu of a valid Singapore passport, which he no longer holds.
As part of the bail conditions, Yee is barred from publishing any materials, disclosing information, or making public comments, including on social media, regarding the ongoing case.
He also has to surrender any travel document in his possession and must surrender himself to the authorities, be available for investigations or attend court on the day and at the time and place appointed for him to do so.
Yee must also not commit any offence while on bail and must not interfere with any witness or otherwise obstruct the course of justice.
His pre-trial conference will be held on April 23.
Offenders who flout NS enlistment rules can face a fine of up to $10,000, a jail term of up to three years, or both. - The Straits Times/ANN
