Seoul court sentences US YouTuber Johnny Somali to 6 months in jail over offensive stunts.
American YouTuber Johnny Somali has been sentenced to six months in prison for his 2024 act of public nuisance when he filmed himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves. South Korean authorities indicted Somali, whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael, in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country.In October 2024, the 25-year-old YouTuber posted several videos provoking South Koreans. He sang the North Korean national anthem, spilled noodles inside a convenience store, got into several heated arguments with strangers etc. Then he uploaded a video of himself kissing and twerking eside a statue memoralizing Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese occupying forces before and during World War II, referred to as “comfort women” in Japan. As the incident triggered massive backlash, Somali apologized and said he was not aware of the significance of the statue. The trial, originally scheduled for March 2025, had been delayed after prosecutors added additional charges alleging Ismael shared AI-generated sexual content of him with a deepfake with a female YouTuber. “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 during the trial, noting prosecutors sought a three-year prison sentence.After his indictment, Ismael reshared videos on his YouTube account of what he claimed was the reason for his charges.In a video posted in January titled “They Want me in Korean Jail for this…” Ismael recorded himself in a black robe and hood similar to that of a Ku Klux Klan member and inciting several heated arguments.In his bio on X, Ismael calls himself a “Political Prisoner in South Korea on Trial for Freedom of Speech and Expression.”
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