Singapore teen blogger Amos Yee on Tuesday indicated his keenness to serve jail in lieu of the normally-preferable probation, and is now in remand pending an assessment for reformative training.

His defence counsel Alfred Dodwell told Mothership.sg after the 16-year-old’s morning court appearance that his client was “quite happy to serve out a jail term”, given that he had already spent 18 days in remand, and was judging it to be shorter than a probation sentence. “It’s a personal choice,” he added.

Last month, the youth was found guilty of two charges of promoting religious enmity and obscenity in a high-profile court trial. Since then, he reneged on an initial willingness to be assessed for probation, again making public a video clip and a blog post that were the subject of his convictions.

As recently as on Monday, Yee re-uploaded the obscene image of the late Lee Kuan Yew and Margaret Thatcher directly to his Facebook page, captioning it “The Immaculate Conception” — a term used in the Catholic Church in respect of the Virgin Mary.

He flipped off members of the media as he arrived for his hearing on Tuesday morning, dressed in a khaki jacket, yellow shirt and a pair of shades.

Following Yee’s previous court session, District Judge Jasvender Kaur on Tuesday called for the teen to be assessed for reformative training, during which he will have to return to prison. Prosecutors also called for this as opposed to jail time or a fine, saying the latter would not have any rehabilitative effect on the teen.

A Reformative Training Centre sentence usually lasts between 18 to 30 months, including structured rehabilitation programmes, foot drills, as well as counselling. It is a sentencing option for offenders under 21 who are found unsuitable for probation.

In court on Tuesday, Dodwell argued against reformative training, saying it was disproportionate to the crimes he had committed.

"If whatever he's done until today is going into consideration for the sentencing he's levied, he shouldn't be facing fresh charges,” he told reporters after the court session.

Since his exit from remand on 12 May, Yee has, in a series of blog posts, attempted to refute the charges he was convicted with and accused his former bailor Vincent Law of emotional abuse, while also criticising his supporters for a candlelight vigil that consisted of “dreadful speeches, bad songs and forced emotions”.

When asked about Yee’s comments, blogger Roy Ngerng, who organised the vigil with other activists, seemed unfazed.

“The advocacy that we did was because Amos was politically persecuted by the State,” he told Mothership.sg. "What he does in his private capacity is not of the matter that should be judged in relation to the advocacy. The advocacy was necessary to prevent unfair persecution and we would have done it for anyone in a similar position,” Ngerng added.

Yee’s case will be next mentioned in court on 23 June.

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