Sven Liebich, a German neo-Nazi, will serve an 18-month sentence in a women’s prison after changing his gender under new reforms. Photo / Getty Images
Sven Liebich, a German neo-Nazi, will serve an 18-month sentence in a women’s prison after changing his gender under new reforms. Photo / Getty Images
A German neo-Nazi will be allowed to start serving an 18-month sentence in a women’s prison after he used a new government policy to register a change in gender.
Sven Liebich, who has been photographed at far-right rallies wearing a Nazi-style uniform, will be sent to the Chemnitz women’s prisonin Saxony, according to FAZ, a German newspaper.
In July 2023, the far-right extremist was sentenced for several offences including slander and incitement to hatred, with German courts rejecting his final appeal earlier this year.
German prison officials have said the decision to incarcerate him at a women’s prison was based on his registered gender, not his biological sex.
However, Dennis Cernota, a senior prosecutor in Saxony, said that Liebich would be interviewed upon arrival to check whether it was appropriate for him to be placed among female prisoners. If it is decided that Liebich poses a threat to other inmates, or to law and order inside the prison, he may be transferred, Cernota added.
Liebich was able to switch genders via reforms introduced last year by Olaf Scholz’s centrist coalition, which simplified the process of changing a person’s name and gender on official documents.
The reforms were supposed to support transgender, intersex and non-binary people in Germany, but their use by a neo-Nazi to avoid male prisoners has plunged them into controversy.
Liebich, who now appears in public wearing women’s clothing and a moustache – based on recent pictures circulated by FAZ – goes by the new name of Marla-Svenja on official documents.
Earlier this year, he explained that he had changed his gender and requested a sentence in a female prison to avoid “discrimination” from male inmates.
Liebich is classified by Germany’s domestic intelligence services in Saxony as a “right-wing extremist” with activity “across the state and nationwide”.
He has also been photographed wearing a Nazi-style armband and taking part in protests where black-clad demonstrators march with red, white and black flags.
The armband carried the slogan “Sicherheits-Abteilung”, or SA, which is the same acronym as the Nazis’ stormtrooper division.
Liebich’s use of the gender change policy, intended to support transgender people, has sparked controversy in Germany. Photo / Getty Images
In January, German officials said the country’s penal system still considered Liebich to be a male prisoner in legal terms, and that his status as female was based only in civil law.
“The physical legal person remains. A change in the civil status law is of secondary importance,” said one official.
When Scholz was in power, he justified the reforms on gender changes as a key step forward for German society and its respect towards minorities.
“We show respect to trans, intersex and non-binary people, without taking anything away from others. This is how we continue to drive the modernisation of our country. This includes recognising realities of life and making them possible by law,” he said.
Since the reform was passed, changing gender in Germany requires only a declaration to the authorities and no legal review, as was the case in the past. For trans people, this means they can easily have legal documents updated to reflect their new identity, such as changing their first name on their passport from male to female.
Germans are not allowed to switch gender frequently, as there is a one-year cooling-off period after the first declaration, during which their gender cannot be changed back.
