Update | Father of Singapore blogger critical of Lee Kuan Yew apologises for son’s behaviour
Teenage blogger charged with wounding religious feelings, other offences over video in which he called late leader a 'horrible person'
The father of teenage Singaporean blogger Amos Yee has tearfully apologised for the behaviour of his son, who was charged with offences yesterday over an expletive-laden online critique of Lee Kuan Yew and Christianity.
Yee was charged with offences including obscenity and hurting religious feelings over the YouTube video, in which he described Lee, the country's late founding leader, as a "horrible person" who was, like Jesus Christ, "power hungry and malicious". Yee was arrested on Sunday, the day of Lee's funeral.
The slight student with a thick mop of hair smiled and fidgeted as charges were read to him yesterday in a district court. He was released by the court on S$20,000 (HK$113,000) bail.
Outside the courtroom, his teary-eyed father clasped his hands and told reporters: "I would like to take this opportunity to say very sorry to PM Lee."
But his son later smiled and waved to reporters as they left the court building.
The controversial video has been taken down from the teenager's YouTube page but other people have reproduced it in part or in full.
Yee, who at 16 is old enough to be tried as an adult, was already known in the local YouTube community for humorous postings and a bit role as a child actor in a comedy movie called We Not Naughty.
Yee was slapped with three separate charges, including one for actions that have the "deliberate intention of wounding the religious or racial feelings of any person".
In the eight-minute video titled Lee Kuan Yew Is Finally Dead Yee launched a scathing attack on the 91-year-old political patriarch, who was cremated after a state funeral on Sunday. italic
In the video, Yee challenged the former leader's son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, to sue him.
In an online petition to the Singapore government on activist website change.org petitioners who described themselves as Christians have called for Yee's release. It had garnered more than 1,500 supporters by yesterday afternoon.
"Please release Amos Yee. We forgive him and desire he have a full life of contribution to his community ahead of him," read the letter.
But others criticised Yee's actions. "Please Amos, be rational and not be rash. There's nothing worse than causing distress to ur [sic] family," wrote Gladys Elizabeth Dee on the Yahoo! Singapore Facebook page.
If convicted, Yee faces up to three years in jail, a fine or both for the first charge of deliberately wounding religious or racial feelings. For circulating obscene content, he faces up to three months in jail, a fine or both, and a fine of up to S$5,000 under the harassment law, which was enacted last year.
