A teenager who was sentenced to four weeks imprisonment for wounding religious feelings and distributing obscene material has filed an appeal against his conviction and sentence, his mother told dpa today.

Mary Toh, mother of 16-year-old Amos Yee, said that her son’s lawyer had filed an appeal on July 9.

“I and many parents wish to know for sure that what Amos has done is not criminally wrong. This is to help the adults to be able to continue encouraging kids to be creative and expressive,” Toh told dpa .

Yee was convicted in May after being arrested in March for posting a YouTube video criticising Singapore’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and Christianity shortly after Lee’s death, and a blog post featuring an explicit drawing of Lee and former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

He was sentenced on July 6 to four weeks in prison, backdated to take into account his time on remand since 2 June.

Yee’s case has been highly controversial in Singapore. While many say that freedom of expression needs to be limited to preserve religious harmony, human rights activists say Yee’s case is will have a chilling effect on free speech.

- dpa