A Singaporean man was deported from the United States and charged for allegedly skipping mandatory military conscription upon his return to his home country on Friday, officials said.
Amos Yee was arrested by enlistment inspectors at Singapore’s Changi Airport upon his return, the ministry of defence said. He was charged on Friday for allegedly skipping mandatory military conscription under the Enlistment Act. The charges included failing to report for pre-enlistment medical screening and remaining outside of Singapore without a valid exit permit, according to court documents.
Yee, a Singapore citizen, left the country for the US in 2016, where he was granted asylum in 2017 after Singapore imprisoned him twice as a teenager for posting videos that criticised religion.
During Yee’s time in the US, he was arrested and charged for possessing videos of child sexual abuse and grooming a minor, and was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in December 2021. He was released on parole in October 2023, but was re-arrested a month later for violating his parole conditions. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) subsequently took him into custody for deportation proceedings following his release from the Danville correctional centre in Illinois on parole in November 2025.
Yee is known for his controversial rants against the country's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew.
Yee appeared in court on Friday via a video-link from the cantonment complex where he was being held at around 11.50am with long hair, wearing a long-sleeved black shirt. Deputy prosecutors Tay Jia En and Chong Kee En asked for him to be remanded for about a week for the investigation.
Mr Tay asked that Yee be remanded in Changi prison for further investigations, which the judge granted. Yee said nothing during the appearance other than repeating "no" when asked if he was engaging counsel, CNA reported.
He was jailed in Singapore in 2015 for hurting religious feelings by making remarks about Christians. He was charged again a year later for his remarks about Christians and Muslims. In one of his vlogs he was accused of comparing former prime minister Yew to Hitler and Jesus.
He fled to the US, which granted him asylum despite opposition from the Department of Homeland Security.
In 2020, he was arrested for possessing child sexual abuse videos and grooming a 14-year-old he met online. An Illinois court heard he used WhatsApp to "seduce and solicit her", then distributed her photos online.
US authorities listed Yee as among the “worst of the worst criminal aliens arrested by ICE”.
