An American livestreamer who angered South Koreans by performing s£xual moves on a statue honoring women forced into wartime s£xual slavery has been jailed.
Johnny Somali was jailed for six months Wednesday, April 15, on public nuisance and other charges.
Johnny Somali, 25, whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael, had been barred from leaving South Korea since he was indicted in 2024.
On Wednesday, April 15, 2026, he was detained immediately after he was sentenced on a range of offenses, which also included distributing s£xual deepfakes, according to the Seoul Western District Court.
Johnny arriving in court on Wednesday
Somali is best known for posting provocative videos on YouTube, Twitch and other platforms, several of which have banned him.
During a visit to Seoul in 2024, Somali posted a clip of himself k!ssing and making s£xual gestures toward a statue commemorating the tens of thousands of Korean women Japanese forces forced into s£xual slavery during World War II.
The issue is extremely sensitive in South Korea. A handful of those who were enslaved, who have also been referred to euphemistically as “comfort women,” are still alive.
Somali later apologized, saying he was unaware of the statue’s significance, and the clip was removed. But he continued to stir controversy in South Korea, with local media reporting he had been beaten up multiple times.
Somali was indicted over a number of allegations of disruptive acts, among them that he caused a “commotion” at a convenience store in Seoul.
According to The Korea Herald, he admitted to all charges at his first trial hearing in March 2025.
In addition to the prison term, Somali was sentenced to an additional 20 days in detention and is barred from working with children and people with disabilities for five years.
“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.
Local media reported that Somali apologized for his actions before he entered court Wednesday and that his mother submitted a petition for leniency last month. Prosecutors had sought three years in prison, but Somali received a reduced sentence because of the “absence of severe harm to victims,” the Herald said.
While he was on trial last year, Somali tried to enter the courtroom wearing a red “MAGA” hat associated with supporters of President Donald Trump but was stopped.
During the incident, he said that “Korea is a vassal state of the United States,” drawing backlash, according to local reports.
Four months later, he was seen holding a Japanese Rising Sun flag, which is viewed in South Korea as a symbol of Japanese imperialism, and making remarks that “Japan should reoccupy Korea.” He also proclaimed that “Dokdo belongs to Japan,” in reference to disputed islands that both countries claim as their own, local reports said.
Somali has repeatedly drawn controversy when he has traveled outside the U.S., including during a trip to Japan, where he taunted subway commuters about the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, which k!lled and maimed hundreds of thousands of people.
