Sex offender Amos Yee released from US prison, faces deportation

Singaporean child sex offender Amos Yee is facing deportation from the US to Singapore after being paroled while serving a six-year jail term for child pornography and sexual grooming.

- Aqil Hamzah

Yee, 27, who first rose to notoriety 10 years ago — when he posted an expletive-laden video four days after the death of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew — was released from the Danville Correctional Center in Illinois on Nov 20.

A notification from the Victim Information and Notification Everyday service at 7.14am Illinois time (9.14pm Singapore time) said Yee was let out of prison.

He was originally supposed to be released on Nov 7, with the service issuing a notification that he had been let out. Not even a minute later, a subsequent notification stated that he was taken into custody again.

A post on a blog maintained by his supporters dated some time earlier in the month said his release was delayed as Yee did not have a place to stay that would be located away from children, with the prison needing to find him a halfway house.

On Oct 6, another blog post said he was served papers from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while in prison.

That means the US is likely to revoke his asylum status.