Deported Singaporean YouTuber Amos Yee Arrested, Charged Over Military Service Default
Controversial Singaporean YouTuber Amos Yee has been arrested upon his return to Singapore after being deported from the United States, where he previously served a prison sentence for child sex offences.
Yee was apprehended by enlistment officers at Changi Airport on Friday and subsequently charged for allegedly evading compulsory military service under Singapore’s Enlistment Act, according to the Ministry of Defence.
The charges against him include failing to attend mandatory pre-enlistment medical screening and remaining outside the country without a valid exit permit. Authorities confirmed he would be remanded for further investigations.
Yee, who left Singapore for the United States in 2016, was granted asylum in 2017 after serving jail terms in his home country over videos deemed offensive to religious groups.
During his stay in the US, he was arrested and later convicted on charges related to possession of child sexual abuse materials and grooming a minor. In December 2021, a US court sentenced him to six years in prison. Although he was released on parole in October 2023, he was re-arrested shortly after for violating parole conditions.
Following his release in November 2025, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement took him into custody for deportation proceedings, leading to his eventual return to Singapore.
Yee appeared in court via video link from a detention facility, where prosecutors requested that he be held for about a week to aid ongoing investigations. The court granted the request, and Yee declined legal representation during the hearing.
Once a prominent online personality, Yee gained notoriety in Singapore for his controversial remarks, including criticism of the country’s founding leader, Lee Kuan Yew, and inflammatory comments about religion, which led to multiple convictions in his teenage years.
Authorities in both Singapore and the United States have described his offences as serious, with US officials previously categorising him among high-risk criminal offenders.
