Amos Yee charged in S’pore court over 2016 NS enlistment offences after being deported from US
Nadine Chua
The Straits Times
March 20, 2026
Amos Yee was hauled to court on March 20 and handed charges under the Enlistment Act.
Yee, 27, a child sex offender, was deported from the United States on March 19.
He appeared in court via video-link at around 11.50am with long hair, wearing a long-sleeved black shirt.
The prosecution made an application for Yee to be remanded in Changi Prison for further investigations, which the judge granted.
Yee told the court he will not be engaging a lawyer.
According to charge sheets, Yee was a person subject to the Enlistment Act, but allegedly left Singapore without a valid exit permit from Dec 15, 2016, to March 19, 2026, for a period of nine years, three months and four days.
He is also accused of failing to report for medical screening from April 26, 2016, to March 19, 2026.
Yee also allegedly left Singapore without a valid exit permit from Dec 13, 2015, to April 19, 2016, which is a period of over four months.
His case will be heard again on March 26. No bail was granted to Yee.
Yee failed to report for NS 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.
Offenders who flout NS enlistment rules can be fined up to $10,000, jailed for up to three years, or both.
Yee fled to the US after repeated run-ins with the law in Singapore over controversial comments that were derogatory to Christians and Muslims.
In March 2018, he was granted asylum, and in September that year, was released from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.
Two years later, he was indicted by a grand jury in an Illinois court for solicitation and possession of child pornography.
He had exchanged nude photos and messages with a 14-year-old girl from Texas while he was in Chicago, and was sentenced on Dec 2, 2021.
Barely halfway into his six-year jail term, he was released on parole on Oct 7, 2023, but re-arrested the following month.
While the reason behind this is unknown, it is believed that he had broken the terms of his parole.
These included restrictions, such as not being allowed to use the Internet without approval from the state corrections department, and not being permitted to be near a place where children would be, unless the department allowed it.
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