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.
