An activist—troll, if you like—who’s been a thorn in the side of the German establishment for decades is missing after failing to enter prison last Friday in the city of Chemnitz. The fugitive is Marla-Svenja Liebich, 53, known for decades as Sven.
Police have issued a nationwide arrest warrant and appealed for public assistance, although there is no evidence that Liebich has left the country. However, on social media, messages and graphic montages appeared, mocking the authorities and suggesting, apparently ironically, that he had fled to Russia.
In recent days, an account linked to Liebich has posted dozens of updates with AI-generated images showing him in Moscow, London, or Milan, as well as a fake BBC video claiming that he might appear in disguise—as a man!—to avoid capture.
Liebich was sentenced in 2023 to 18 months in prison for several offenses. After exhausting all appeals, the sentence was confirmed last July. A woman’s prison had been assigned, since the convict had taken advantage of the recent legal reform that allows gender changes in Germany through a simple administrative procedure at the civil registry.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt denounced this as a flagrant abuse of the new regulation and called for tightening its conditions. In Germany, the so-called Selbstbestimmungsgesetz (Self-Determination Law) was approved amid intense controversy by the previous coalition government, especially by the Greens and the SPD, under the argument of guaranteeing ‘individual rights.’ However, many critics warned that the law opened the door to legal manipulation and cases of ‘parody’ of the system, which now seems to be materializing with Liebich’s stunt.
Liebich’s figure was controversial long before his recent identity reinvention. The intelligence services of the state of Saxony-Anhalt devoted entire chapters of their annual reports on extremism to him, highlighting his role in organizing neo-Nazi marches in the 1990s. His sudden conversion to Judaism and subsequent gender transition have been interpreted as a deliberate strategy to provoke institutions and obtain legal advantages.
Beyond the individual case, the matter shows how a state that declares itself a guarantor of diversity and tolerance can be held hostage by individuals who instrumentalize those very norms.
Security forces continue to search addresses linked to the fugitive and monitor his digital channels. However, they acknowledge that ridiculing the manhunt with memes, deepfakes, and public mockery complicates the investigation. The result is a spectacle that highlights the fragility of German law and the government’s lack of foresight in such a sensitive area as the penitentiary system.
