Amos Yee, the teenager who was found guilty for hurting the feelings of Christians and posting an obscene image online last year, was arrested by the police on Wednesday and since released on bail.
In response to media queries, the police said that a 17-year-old male Singaporean had been arrested for offences under Sections 174 and 298 of the Penal Code.
The police spokesman said, “The offence under section 298 of the Penal Code relates to online remarks made in November 2015 that contained offensive and disparaging remarks against various religious communities,”
Amos was ordered to report to a police station for investigations after the police reports were lodged, but he did not do so.
“The subject disregarded the notice and left the country shortly thereafter, and remained overseas for a prolonged period until his return in April 2016,” said the spokesman.
Upon his return, he was served a Warrant of Attendance issued by the State Courts to report again, but failed to do so. The police added that investigations are ongoing.
Some speculate that the charge faced by Amos on Section 298 is due to the blog post made in reference to former Nominated Member of Parliament, Calvin Cheng’s comment to kill children of terrorists. In the 828-worded blog post, there is a line that disparages the Islam religion.
But according to Amos himself in December 2015, the likely reason for his charge is due to a post that was made on 28 November 2015 (The post has since been removed by Facebook due to comments that are “anti-religion”). The comments made by Amos on this Facebook post match the description of the police’s statement, “offensive and disparaging remarks against various religious communities”.
Amos is now out of police’s custody after being bailed by his mother
Section 174 – failure to attend in obedience to an order from a public servant
Section 298 – Uttering words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious or racial feelings of any person
