Exasperated prison authorities in Singapore are scratching their heads, wondering how the Facebook page of imprisoned atheist blogger Amos Yee, above, continues to be updated.
Today, for example, this message appeared on the 16-year-old’s page:
Being in a larger environment of robbers, rapists and drug addicts, does do wonders in rehabilitating me. I now have a much larger network of friends who can sell heroin to me, once I get out. Yay!
According to this report, since last Thursday, a number of posts have appeared at regular intervals. The first, which read “What’s up doc? Hahahaha…”, popped up at about 5 pm on Thursday.
It was followed a few hours later by another post, which posed the question:
How is it that I am in prison, yet I am still able to post something on Facebook?
It is still not clear how the Facebook page is being updated. The Singapore Prison Service has confirmed that all inmates and remandees do not have access to any telecommunication devices within the prison institutions.
Yee was remanded for three weeks on June 2, after District Judge Jasvender Kaur called for a report to assess if he is suitable for “reformative training“.
He had been found guilty on May 12 of uploading an obscene image and making remarks intending to hurt the feelings of Christians in a video.
Many of the mysterious Facebook posts complain about prison life. One laments the lack of exposure to sunshine, while another criticises the attitudes of police officers towards Yee’s choice of a vegetarian diet.
All three of Yee’s lawyers – Alfred Dodwell, Chong Jia Hao, and Ervin Tan – said when contacted that they were not aware that the posts were being made.
Chong said:
We aren’t aware of how this is happening and we don’t want to speculate. We’ll just focus on preparing for the sentencing. Everything else is secondary.
Many have had their own theories on how the posts are happening. Some believe that Yee had written the posts beforehand and scheduled them to appear later. Others suggested that he had given his Facebook password to a third party, or that his account had been hacked.
Yee is due in court tomorrow.