Germany sends neo-Nazi figure Marla-Svenja Liebich to a men’s prison after gender change sparks legal and political controversy
BERLIN: A German neo-Nazi provocateur who was slated to be sent to a women’s prison after having a legal gender change will instead be incarcerated with men, local authorities said on Thursday.
Marla-Svenja Liebich — who used to go by the name of Sven before registering a new identity as a woman — has been accused of exploiting German laws on gender self-identification.
Liebich, who fled Germany after being convicted on charges including incitement to racial hatred and slander, had been extradited on Wednesday from the Czech Republic to a women’s prison in the eastern German city of Chemnitz.
However, the facility’s management ultimately decided Liebich would serve the sentence in a men’s correctional facility, said a spokesman for the justice ministry in the eastern German state of Saxony.
Saxony’s justice minister, Constanze Geiert, praised the decision.
“Tricks, deceptions and games never succeed within the rule of law. It is fortunate that the correctional facility acted swiftly to clarify the situation and refused to play along with staged theatrics,” Geiert said in a statement.
She said the move “prioritised the safety of women in the Chemnitz correctional system”.
Liebich, 55, has been a high-profile figure in eastern Germany’s right-wing extremist scene for decades.
Liebich disappeared last August after failing to show up at a women’s prison in Germany to serve a sentence of one-and-a-half years.
In early April, Liebich was arrested in the western Czech Republic under a European warrant.
Czech courts rejected Liebich’s attempts to block the extradition.
In late 2024, Liebich registered as a woman, following a reform that made it easier for people to change their legal gender.
The move was widely seen as intended to mock Germany’s Self-Determination Act, introduced in November 2024, and sparked debate over potential abuse of the new law.
After taking office last year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government announced a review of the law, but has so far not enacted any changes.
Geiert, who is also a member of Merz’s conservative CDU party, urged “swift” reforms.
