Johnny Somali enters the Seoul Western District Court on Wednesday. (Yonhap) A Seoul appeals court upheld a six-month prison sentence for US livestreamer Johnny Somali, who drew public anger in South Korea last year after kissing a statue commemorating victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery.The Seoul Western District Court on Thursday 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 Offenses 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 spilled 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 livestreaming 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 dedicated to victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery, were not included in the indictment.The case drew wider attention because the statue is one of several memorials installed in South Korea to honor 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, but the lower court sentenced him to six months, citing the lack of severe harm to victims while finding that he repeatedly committed offenses against members of the public for online profit and showed disregard for Korean law.The court also ordered restrictions on his employment at institutions serving children, teenagers and people with disabilities after his release.Ismael appealed 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 recognized that he should take responsibility, according to local media.The appeals court, however, rejected both sides’ challenges, keeping the six-month sentence unchanged.