South Korea prosecutors indict American YouTuber Johnny Somali

Controversial YouTuber and Twitch streamer Johnny Somali has been indicted for “causing a commotion” at a convenience store in South Korea, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

They said American national Johnny Somali, whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael, is not allowed to leave South Korea because of a travel ban linked to the case.

“He was indicted on Monday without detention for creating a commotion at a convenience store in October,” a spokesman for the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office told AFP.

A convenience store employee reported Somali to the police on October 17 when he confronted her after being told not to drink alcohol inside the store.

He is also accused of making sexist remarks towards her.

Somali, 24, has dominated headlines in the country for a series of stunts, including kissing and twerking by a statue memorialising Korean victims of wartime sexual slavery — euphemistically called “comfort women” — by the Japanese military during World War II.

The incident, which appeared in a now-removed video on his YouTube channel, drew strong backlash and condemnation.

Johnny Somali later issued an apology.

“I want to apologise to the Korean people. I was not aware of the significance of the statue… It was just an entertainment for my audience,” he said in a video posted online.

But his apology was largely met sceptically by the local media, questioning his sincerity.

“Youtuber apologises for the statue insult… but his sincerity is in question,” read one headline in the Kukmin Ilbo daily.

“It appears he had some knowledge on the statue’s meaning and historical facts around it,” the paper said.

He has even been subject to South Koreans chasing him to physically hurt him, with one video posted by Yonhap news agency showing a man assaulting him to the ground.

Somali also caused controversy in neighbouring Japan last year for his behaviour, including taunting subway commuters about Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the two cities devastated by US nuclear bombs in 1945.

His YouTube account is unavailable.