Convicted German transgender right-wing extremist to serve time in women's prison

Sven Liebich, now known as Marla-Svenja Liebich, has been convicted of right-wing extremist activities, including incitement to hatred, and is due to start a prison sentence soon. The public prosecutor's office in Halle has summoned Liebich to appear at Chemnitz prison.

Liebich himself published a corresponding summons to start his sentence in a post on Platform X.

According to current plans, he will initially be held in a prison for women.

The background to this is a corresponding self-disclosure on gender identity, based on the new regulations of the Self-Determination Act, which came into force in November last year. The reformed law makes it possible to have the gender entry adjusted by means of a personal declaration.

Warnings about abuse of new 'self-declaration' law

Since the coalition government's plans for the law became known, concerns have repeatedly been raised about possible abuse. During the election campaign, the CDU/CSU clearly took up the issue. Andrea Lindholz, then deputy chairwoman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, declared in April last year that the coalition had "lost its way" with this law.

The coalition agreement signed by the SPD and CDU/CSU in May last year merely stated that the Self-Determination Act would be reviewed "by 31 July 2026 at the latest".

During the coalition negotiations between the CDU/CSU and SPD, it was therefore not dealt with in the justice working group, but by the negotiators for the "Family" department. According to German tabloid BILD, however, no agreement could be reached there on how to deal with the law. The issue was therefore referred back to the party leaders. The result was merely a vague formulation in the coalition agreement.

'Clear criteria'

As Benedikt Bernzen, spokesperson for the public prosecutor's office in Halle, explained to German public broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), the decision on placement is now based on two clear criteria: the officially registered gender, in Marla-Svenja Liebich's case female, and the registered place of residence.

As this is in Saxony, the local enforcement plan there applies, which provides for female prisoners to be detained in Chemnitz Prison.

However, the Saxon Ministry of Justice emphasised to the local daily Mitteldeutsche Zeitung that additional psychological or medical reports can be used in certain cases. These include, for example, if there is a suspicion that someone may have deliberately changed the gender entry in order to influence the prison conditions.

In July 2023, Liebich, then still known as Sven Liebich, was sentenced to one and a half years' imprisonment without probation by the Halle district court.

The sentence included incitement to hatred, insult and defamation. Appeals by both Liebich and the public prosecutor's office failed before the Halle district court.

Liebich had changed his gender and first name by making a "simple declaration" to the registry office in Schkeuditz in north-west Saxony.