A controversy has broken out in Germany about whether a trans right-wing extremist should serve a prison sentence in a women’s or a men’s facility.
In July 2023, Marla-Svenja Liebich was sentenced by the Halle District Court in Saxon-Anhalt to a total of one year and six months in prison without parole for extreme right incitement to hatred, defamation, and insult.
Liebich appealed against her sentence and lost.
At the time she was known as Sven Liebich. German media reports say Liebich used to be a member of a neo-Nazi group called Blood and Honour.
At the end of 2024, Liebich had her gender entry in official records changed from male to female. She also changed her first name.
The basis for this was Germany’s Self-Determination Act, which had just come into force and strengthened the rights of transgender people. The Act allows people to change their gender marker and first name through a simple declaration at a registry office, instead of a judicial ruling.
German media have questioned whether Liebich’s change was serious.
“Whether the change is serious is doubtful,” wrote Der Spiegel. “Liebich has been known for years for her right-wing extremist views and has also made queerphobic statements in the past.”
Liebich has taken legal action against media outlets for what she considers to be false representations of her gender identity.
A complaint against Spiegel to the Press Council was unanimously rejected by the Council as unfounded. Spiegel said the letter said it was likely that Liebich “made the change of civil status in an abusive manner in order to provoke and embarrass the state”.
Liebich will shortly begin her prison term.
The Chief Public Prosecutor in Halle, Dennis Cernota told German public broadcaster MDR in Saxony-Anhalt that Liebich would serve her prison sentence at the Chemnitz women’s prison.
Liebich confirmed this in a post on X. “I will begin my prison sentence as scheduled,” she said. “On August 29, 2025, at 10pm, I will arrive at the Chemnitz correctional facility with my suitcases.”
A decision on where to place Liebich will then be made at the start of incarceration. The chief public prosecutor said the prison administration would decide whether Liebich could pose a threat to security and order, which could lead to her transfer to another jail.
Meanwhile German media report that Liebich has recently lost another case, against journalist Julian Reichelt at Berlin Regional Court.
Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Nius, posted on X in July: “Anyone who follows the reporting on neo-Nazi Sven Liebich can only come to one conclusion: The traffic-light coalition government has managed, by law, to force almost the entire German media landscape to tell untruths and make grotesquely false claims. Sven Liebich is not a woman.”
Die Welt said the court’s Second Civil Chamber decided to reject Liebich’s application for a preliminary injunction, saying it was unfounded.
