A neo-Nazi activist from Germany who legally changed his gender to avoid imprisonment in a men’s jail has been apprehended in Czechia – but he is fighting his extradition to Germany.
As state broadcaster MDR reported today, Marla-Svenja Liebich does not want to be extradited to Germany, according to the public prosecutor’s office in Halle (Saxony-Anhalt).
The activist’s refusal means a Czech court will now have to rule on extradition. This could take up to three months, according to German authorities.
Liebich is currently jailed in Plzeň (Czechia) after being apprehended near the Czech-German border in early April.
The 55-year-old Liebich has made headlines in Germany since early 2025 – when he used a new law introduced by the then left-wing government to legally change his gender to escape imprisonment in a conventional mens’ prison.
Born Sven Liebich, he is a well-known neo-Nazi activist from eastern Germany. In July 2023, he was first sentenced to a year and a half of prison by the District Court in Halle for incitement of hatred, defamation and insult.
Liebich was a high-profile figure in eastern Germany’s right-wing extremist scene for decades and used to be a member of the banned Blood and Honour group, according to German media reports. He also ran an online business selling products popular with xenophobes, such as baseball bats with the slogan “deportation assistant”.
After losing all his appeals, Liebich legally changed his gender to female and his name to Marla-Svenja in January 2025.
This was made possible by the so-called Self-Determination Act, a law pushed by the German Greens, which came into effect in November 2024. It allows German citizens to change their legal gender at will.
The now officially female Liebich often shows up in press pictures wearing women’s clothes and a horseshoe moustache.
Schutzstatus –
aber Heimreise zu Ostern?
Volle Busse nach Kiew.
Und eine Debatte, die längst überfällig ist.Wie passt das zusammen?
Den ganzen Artikel findest du jetzt im Artikelbereich. pic.twitter.com/odcld57EdS— Marla Svenja Liebich (@MarlaSvenjaL) April 9, 2026
Liebich also announced he would sue anybody who “misgendered” him – which carries a fine of up to €10,000 in Germany.
In August 2025, the Halle public prosecutor’s office ordered that Liebich should serve his sentence in the women’s section of the Chemnitz correctional facility.
On August 29, 2025, though, Liebich did not turn up to start serving his sentence. On social media, he claimed to have fled to Russia – before being picked up by Czech police in April 2026 after a failed flight attempt on an e-scooter.
Meanwhile, the Self-Determination Act – which allowed Liebich to change his gender in the first place – is still in place, despite earlier claims by the now ruling Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) that they would abolish it once in power.
