The death of Singapore’s first President Lee Kuan Yew last week grabbed global attention, with the man acknowledged for driving Singapore’s rise as a nation earning glowing tributes.

Back in Singapore though, 16 year old Amos Yee was celebrating, posting a video on YouTube denigrating the former leader. He made some very unfavourable comparisons between Lee and Jesus Christ, which also earned him some unpalatable charges.

Yee was charged with obscenity and hurting religious feelings, offences that could fetch a 3 year sentence if he’s convicted- but was released on a $14,500 bail.

From Al-Jazeera:

In the eight-minute video titled “Lee Kuan Yew is finally dead”, Yee celebrated the death of Singapore’s founding father Lee, who died last week aged 91 and was cremated after a state funeral on Sunday.

Yee also made insensitive remarks about Christianity in the video, which was seen by hundreds of thousands before it was taken down.

He called Lee, who did not profess any religion, a “horrible person” and challenged the former leader’s son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, to sue him.

Yee then went on to compare Lee to Jesus, calling both “power-hungry and malicious”.

Celebrating the death of anyone is in pretty poor state, but I don’t see the offence that’s so terrible an arrest and jail time has to be invoked. Police say they view the video as one that ‘threatens religious harmony in Singapore’.

Lee might have been a highly effective leader but he was no angel; and some of his methods certainly bred resentment.