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BERLIN — Germany's interior minister has called for tighter rules on gender self-determination after a neo-Nazi, convicted of incitement to hatred and other crimes as a man, legally changed gender and is now set to serve an 18-month sentence in a women's prison.
Marla-Svenja Liebich, formerly known as Sven Liebich, was sentenced in July 2023 to 18 months without parole for incitement to hatred, defamation and insult. At the time, Liebich was a man.
Last year, Liebich changed name and gender under Germany's revised Self-Determination Act, just weeks after the law came into effect. After a failed appeal, Liebich is set to begin the sentence at a women's facility.
Senior government officials, including Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, have accused Liebich of abusing the Self-Determination Act, a German law that guarantees an individual's right to change their gender marker.
"This is an example of the very simple abuse of the self-determination law," Dobrindt told Stern magazine over the weekend. "We now need a debate about how to reinstate clear rules against the abuse of changes of gender... The judiciary, the public, and politicians are being fooled here because the Self-Determination Act provides the opportunity for this."
Liebich, an active member of Germany's far-right extremist scene since the 1990s, was described by Saxony-Anhalt's intelligence agency as a "right-wing extremist" with statewide and national activity and was once a leading figure in the banned neo-Nazi "Blood & Honor" network.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Liebich's arm was tattooed with a yellow Star of David, bearing the word "unvaccinated" - equating the treatment of unvaccinated individuals to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.
Liebich's sentence is set to begin Friday at a prison in the city of Chemnitz. Liebich also has demanded kosher meals and rabbinical supervision in prison after claiming in online posts to now be a devout Jew.
Liebich's previous appearance of short dark hair and graying stubble was replaced in recent court appearances by a floppy black hat, sunglasses, gold earrings and bright red lipstick beneath a gray handlebar mustache.
Family Affairs Minister Karin Prien told German tabloid Bild that Liebich's case "clearly demonstrates that the Self-Determination Act, in its current form, contains weaknesses that could encourage targeted abuse," adding that safeguarding gender self-determination remains "right and important."
The law, introduced under then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left government, came into force in November. It was intended to ease the process for trans, intersex and nonbinary people to change gender entries without psychiatric assessment.
Liebich is set to arrive at the Chemnitz correctional facility - a women's prison - on Friday and has called a news conference outside the entrance.
Whether Liebich will stay at the Chemnitz prison will be decided after arrival. Benedikt Bernzen, a spokesperson for the Halle public prosecutor's office, told regional broadcaster MDR that an individual admission interview will determine whether Liebich is transferred elsewhere.
This will examine "whether Ms. Liebich's detention in the prison there is compatible with other considerations that may play a role," Bernzen said. "The prison regulations, the security interests of the other incarcerated women, and Ms. Liebich's security interests all play a role."
In 2022, Liebich disrupted the pro-LGBTQ+ Christopher Street Day parade in Halle, calling participants "parasites of society" and a year later spoke of "transfascism."
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