Bryon Loke Thong Ler was charged in court on yesterday (18 Aug) with using criminal force on Amos Yee at Jurong Point mall.
The 19-year-old is alleged to have on May 29 held on to the teen blogger’s hands and used his arms to restrain him from the back at basement 1 of Jurong Point Shopping Centre. The 19-year-old who is unrepresented told Court that he wishes to engage a lawyer.
Amos uploaded a video in May saying that he was attacked by a Chinese man in the shopping mall.
[fvplayer src=”http://youtube.com/watch?v=UwMFxDzJEXA”]
Several people at that time doubted Amos’ accounts and said that the attack was staged by the blogger himself as he was craving attention.
A witness who allegedly saw what happened described the incident as such:
“I witnessed the entire incident. When attacked, Amos ran all the way to the Fairprice supermarket. The man who assaulted him and his girlfriend waited outside the supermarket for him, and when he came out they grabbed him by the neck and dragged him all the way to a Japanese restaurant. Many people witnessed the incident but none came forward to help, except a Caucasian man. He asked the aggressor to let Amos go, but the aggressor just ignored him. Amos managed to get free when the aggressor held him with one hand and used the other to call his gang members on the phone.”
(sources: http://bit.ly/1WsTnVY and http://bit.ly/25qJry1)
The 17-year-old blogger is facing trial in Court and faces six charges of intending to wound the feelings of Muslims or Christians – via five videos and a photo – and two counts of failing to report to the Jurong Police Division for investigations.