SEOUL: A Seoul appeals court upheld a six-month prison sentence for US live streamer Johnny Somali, who drew public anger in South Korea in 2025 after kissing a statue commemorating victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery.
The Seoul Western District Court on June 25 rejected appeals filed by both Ramsey Khalid Ismael, better known online as Johnny Somali, and prosecutors, leaving intact a lower court ruling that sentenced him to six months in prison.
Ismael was convicted on charges including obstruction of business, distributing fabricated obscene content under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, and violating the Minor Offences Act.
The charges stemmed in part from an incident in October 2024 at a convenience store in Mapo-gu, western Seoul, where he played loud music and spilt cup noodle soup on a table, disrupting business operations.
He was also accused of causing disturbances on buses, subways and at Lotte World, as well as live-streaming an obscene video fabricated by combining the faces of a man and a woman.
His actions involving the Statue of Peace, including kissing and dancing near the memorial, were not included in the indictment.
The case drew wider attention because the statue is one of several memorials installed in South Korea to honour victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery, euphemistically called “comfort women”, a long-running source of tension between Seoul and Tokyo.
Prosecutors had sought a three-year prison term for Ismael, but the lower court sentenced him to six months, citing the lack of severe harm to victims while finding that he repeatedly committed offences against members of the public for online profit and showed disregard for South Korean law.
The court also ordered restrictions on his employment at institutions serving children, teenagers and people with disabilities after his release.
Ismael appealed against the first ruling, saying he had family in the US and missed them deeply. He said at the time that he had made a serious mistake and recognised that he should take responsibility, according to local media.
The appeals court, however, rejected both sides’ challenges and upheld the six-month sentence. - The Korea Herald/ANN
