Singapore’s talented Youtube video maker and outspoken critic of the ruling party dictatorship in Singapore has been granted asylum protection from the United States.
A US immigration judge at Chicago approved Amos Yee’s application yesterday (Mar 24) and the 17-year-old has been released from the asylum seeker detention centre. Judge Samuel Cole said that Amos Yee is a young political dissident and that Amos Yee’s repeated detentions amount to maltreatment and political discrimination by the Singapore PAP government:
“The evidence presented at the hearing demonstrates Singapore’s prosecution of Amos was a pretext to silence his political opinions critical of the Singapore government.”
Amos Yee was first jailed for making a video about deceased dictator Lee Kuan Yew and scolding Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his high profile video “Lee Kuan Yew is finally dead”. You may view the video here:
The Singapore Embassy in Washington declined to comment on the asylum case but the move has boosted credibility to critics of the Singapore government. The Singapore government is also silence on US’s decision that confirmed the Lee Hsien Loong administration is guilty for human rights infringements.
Lee Hsien Loong is labelled a “political predator” by international human rights groups and he often resort to the abuse of the police and defamation lawsuits to silence his critics. Writer Roy Ngerng was sued by Lee Hsien Loong and the Prime Minister won in a default judgement without a trial. Roy Ngerng was sentenced to pay S$150,000 in compensation to the multi-millionaire Prime Minister.
Two writers for independent news sites, The Real Singapore, was jailed 8 and 10 months for criticising the Singapore government. The editor of States Times Review was also forced to flee to Australia after the Singapore Police hauled him up for investigation for his involvement with The Real Singapore.