{"id":553283,"date":"2026-07-16T20:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T20:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/553283\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T20:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T20:28:11","slug":"german-far-right-activist-transferred-to-mens-prison-in-transgender-case-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/553283\/","title":{"rendered":"German far-right activist transferred to men\u2019s prison in transgender case \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">For 30 years, Marla-Svenja Liebich, a bearded 55-year-old eastern German, was a full-throated neo-Nazi, with a string of convictions for incitement against minorities including queer people, dubbed \u201csocietal parasites\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">After the latest incitement conviction in July 2023, however, Liebich used Germany\u2019s self-determination Act to apply to shed her old identity and name \u2013 male, Sven \u2013 to become Marla-Svenja, female.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Liebich appeared in court for sentencing wearing a straw hat, lipstick, earrings and a leopard print dress \u2013 and insisted on sitting out her 18-month term in a women\u2019s prison. The court complied but, instead of presenting herself at prison last August, Liebich disappeared.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The mystery over her location lasted until German police tracked her down last April. They tapped the phone of Liebich\u2019s girlfriend, who led them to a small town in the neighbouring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/czech-republic\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/czech-republic\/\">Czech Republic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">After local police arrested Liebich under a European arrest warrant, she appealed her return, arguing she would not be safe in a German prison<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The court in Pilsen reviewed the conviction and Liebich\u2019s colourful career \u2013 from leader of the extremist \u201cBlood and Honour\u201d group to leading Covid conspiracy theorist \u2013 and agreed to the extradition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On Wednesday, all legal appeals exhausted, Liebich was returned to Germany. Rather than a women\u2019s prison, however, Liebich will serve the 18-month sentence in a male prison in Mei\u00dfen, in the eastern state of Saxony.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">As in all custodial sentences, the decision on prison was taken by the state prison service. It was welcomed by Saxony\u2019s minister for justice Constanze Geiert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s good that the prison service worked quickly to establish the facts,\u201d said Geiert, \u201cand did not fall for an act\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The \u201cact\u201d she referred to was the transition from Sven to Marla-Svenja. While Liebich insists it is genuine, many in Germany see it as an attempt to subvert the country\u2019s self-determination law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Since November 2024, German citizens can change their legal gender to male, female, diverse or none \u2013 with no other documentation or medical assessments required.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Nearly 11,000 people filed applications in the first two months, with a further 22,000 last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Now the state of Saxony-Anhalt has launched a court case to reverse Liebich\u2019s revised identity and is lobbying, with other eastern German states, to overhaul the entire 2024 Act.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cNobody wants to send the self-determination Act back to the 1980s, and impose once more on trans persons burdensome and inhumane expert opinions,\u201d said Beate Mei\u00dfner, justice minister in the eastern state of Thuringia. \u201cBut it should be possible, just as with a sham marriage, to incorporate a testing mechanism if a state official notices abuse taking place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For 30 years, Marla-Svenja Liebich, a bearded 55-year-old eastern German, was a full-throated neo-Nazi, with a string of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[56982,292,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-553283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-czech-republic","tag-germany","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}