Published: 07 Mar. 2025, 14:57
Screen capture of Johnny Somali’s video uploaded on Oct. 17, 2024 [SCREEN CAPTURE]
Johnny Somali admitted to disrupting a convenience store during a public outburst last October in Mapo District, western Seoul. The controversial U.S. streamer accepted the charge of obstruction of business against him on the first day of his trial at Seoul Western District Court on Friday, to which he arrived an hour late. Somali, whose legal name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael, had uploaded a video of himself pouring instant noodles onto a table while paying loud music in the convenience store after an employee stopped him from drinking alcohol on Oct. 17 of last year. The police launched an investigation and imposed a travel ban on Ismael based on the footage. The Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office indicted him without detention last November. He was subsequently charged with obstruction of business for the convenience store outburst, as well as with forcing himself onto passing pedestrians while holding a bag of odorous fish in his hands the same month. Ismael arrived at court at 11:10 a.m., claiming he’d been delayed by a stomachache. Dressed in a white suit, Ismael attempted to enter the courtroom wearing a red Make America Great Again hat, but was stopped from doing so due to court rules. Ismael answered questions regarding his date of birth and address with his hands in his pockets. He characterized his current occupation as “student.”
Johnny Somali, whose legal name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael, streams with the Japanese Rising Sun Flag displayed on his laptop on Oct. 30, 2024. [SCREEN CAPTURE]
The case will proceed on April 9 with a second trial, addressing a total of four cases, including an additional obstruction of business charge. The judge advised Somali to “arrive on time for the next hearing.”
Screen capture of Johnny Somali’s video uploaded on Oct. 9, 2024 [SCREEN CAPTURE]
Ismael has been a public nuisance throughout his stay in South Korea, responsible for antics including blasting explicit content on the subway and North Korean music on buses. The streamer became a target of righteous hatred from the South Korean public on Oct. 9 of last year, when he uploaded a video of himself kissing the Statue of Peace in central Seoul’s Itaewon. Ismael also performed a lewd dance in front of a bronze monument of a girl representing the tens of thousands of young women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945). Ismael has since been subject to vigilante attacks alongside his Korean acquaintance Heon-jong “Hank” Yoo, who referred to himself on social media as a “Texas Asian Nazi” and was sentenced to jail and deportation from the United States in 2019 for federal firearms violations.
BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [[email protected]]
