Controversial Singaporean blogger Amos Yee has been granted political asylum by a judge in the United States.
Yee, now 18, was first convicted of wounding religious feelings in 2015, then convicted of the same offense in 2016 after the court found that he had insulted Islam and Christianity in various blog and Facebook posts.
He was detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the Chicago O'Hare International Airport on Dec. 16, after traveling to the U.S. from Singapore to seek asylum.
According to a statement from Yee’s lawyer, the judge “concluded that Yee's 2015 arrest and convictions clearly constituted past persecution on account of Yee's political opinion.”
Yee, who has been detained in the U.S. since December, is now immediately eligible for release.
Editor: Olivia Yang
