Germany’s legal, judicial, and prison systems are facing a fundamental challenge after a far-right activist known for homophobic remarks was convicted of hate crimes and sentenced to prison. During the appeal proceedings, however, the activist decided to change gender identity, becoming a woman—and now requests to be incarcerated in a women’s facility.

For years, Sven Liebich was known as a far-right figure who “walked between the raindrops,” often skirting the edge of legality with provocative statements and actions that kept him out of law enforcement’s reach. Liebich was also under surveillance by the country’s intelligence services due to his extremist activities. After years of homophobic and anti-immigrant rhetoric, including a provocation at the Buchenwald concentration camp, he was prosecuted and, in July 2023, convicted by the regional court in Halle on charges of hate incitement, defamation, and insult, receiving a prison sentence of one and a half years.

In November 2024, after the sentence was upheld when his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court, Sven decided to change gender and became Marla Svenja Liebich, making use of the “Self-Determination Law” enacted in 2024. This law allows individuals to change their gender registration in official records quickly through a straightforward process: filing a request with the population registry, waiting three months, and paying a fee of fifteen euros. The legislation was intended to simplify gender changes in official records for transgender people.

According to the newspaper Der Spiegel, Marla Svenja Liebich’s motives may not necessarily be related to gender identity. “Liebich’s change was based on the Self-Determination Law that strengthened the rights of transgender people,” the paper reported, “but it is doubtful whether the change is genuine: for years Liebich was known for far-right views and previously issued anti-queer statements. As recently as September 2023, she insulted members of the LGBTQ community and spoke of ‘trans-fascism.’”

Liebich went further by suing media outlets that referred to her as male, though all of her lawsuits were dismissed by German courts. The dilemma now rests with the Ministry of Justice of Saxony, as the court has not yet officially ruled on whether to order her incarceration in a women’s prison in the city of Chemnitz—according to her official gender registration—or in a men’s prison due to doubts about her motives for the change. The concern in Germany is that Liebich has exploited the new law in an attempt to ridicule it, and that this could encourage other men to change their gender in order to be sent to women’s prisons.