An American YouTuber who sparked outrage in South Korea for provocative stunts, including dancing on and kissing a statue honouring victims of wartime sexual slavery, was sentenced to six months in prison on public nuisance and other charges by a Seoul court on Wednesday.
The Seoul Western District Court found Ramsey Khalid Ismael, a self-proclaimed internet “troll” known online as Johnny Somali, guilty of multiple charges, including obstruction of business and distributing fabricated sexually explicit content, according to The Associated Press.
Somali, 25, was ordered into immediate detention following the verdict. He had been barred from leaving South Korea since his indictment in 2024 after he was deemed a flight risk.
Prosecutors had sought a three-year term for Somali, who also faced accusations of harassing staff and visitors at an amusement park, disrupting a convenience store by blasting music and upending noodles onto a table, causing similar scenes on a bus and subway and distributing non-consensual deepfake videos.
The court said Somali displayed “severe” disrespect for South Korean law and noted that he offended countless people with livestreamed stunts aimed at generating YouTube revenue.
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In October 2024, Somali sparked outrage in South Korea after posting a video of himself kissing and performing a lap dance on the Statue of Peace, a bronze statue commemorating victims of the Japanese military’s sexual slavery during the Second World War.
The Comfort Women Statue or the Statue of Peace symbolizing Korean Comfort Women or sex slaves by the Japanese military during the Second World War, is seen in front of the former Japanese embassy in Seoul, South Korea.
Lee Jae-Won/AFLO via ZUMA Press
He apologized for his actions and claimed that he was “not aware of the significance of the statue” before removing the clip from YouTube.
In addition to his prison term, Somali was sentenced to an extra 20 days in detention and is barred for five years from working with children and people with disabilities following his release, NBC News reports.
“The defendant repeatedly committed crimes against unspecified members of the public to generate profit via YouTube and distributed the content in disregard of Korean law,” the court said.
Media in South Korea reported that Somali apologized for his actions before entering court on Wednesday.
“I think justice will be served. I’m remorseful, I’m sorry for my crimes,” Somali said.
The Korea Herald reported that Somali received a reduced sentence due to the “absence of severe harm to victims.”
Somali was also detained at a 2024 protest in Tel Aviv after making inappropriate remarks towards a female police officer.
Somali was streaming the protest on his social media accounts at the time of the incident and recorded himself calling the officer a “b–ch” and told her, “I’ll slap that a–,” among other comments.
He was arrested on suspicion of interfering with a police officer in the performance of duty, insulting a public servant, rioting in a public place and violation of privacy, according to the Times of Israel.
Somali was also arrested in Japan for trespassing on a construction site in Osaka in 2023 and was fined around US$1,000 (C$1,374.75) for disrupting a restaurant with loud music.
— With files from The Associated Press
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