Czech High Court approves extradition of German right-wing extremist Marla Svenja Liebich

The convicted right-wing extremist Marla Svenja Liebich has lost her legal battle against extradition to Germany. The Higher Regional Court in Prague has rejected her complaints, clearing the way for her transfer.

Court Decision

The Higher Regional Court in Prague dismissed the 55-year-old's complaints against extradition as unfounded, a court spokesperson announced. The ruling upholds the earlier decision by the lower court.

Chief Prosecutor Dennis Cernota, from the responsible enforcement authority—the Public Prosecutor's Office in Halle—stated that Czech authorities will now contact the State Criminal Police Office in Saxony-Anhalt within ten days.

Liebich is expected to be transferred from the Czech Republic to the correctional facility in Chemnitz within the next ten days. The facility management in Chemnitz will decide whether she serves her sentence there or is placed elsewhere.

Charges and Sentence

The Regional Court in Plzeň, Czech Republic, had already ruled in early June that Liebich should be handed over to German authorities to serve a prison sentence. She was sentenced in Germany to a total of one year and six months in prison without parole for:

• Incitement to hatred
• Defamation
• Insult

Legal Challenges Rejected

Liebich had argued that she did not want to be returned to Germany, claiming she feared she would die in a German men's prison. She also filed a motion of bias against the presiding judge handling the case. Both complaints were rejected in a non-public session. The decision is final.

Liebich could still appeal to the Constitutional Court in Brno, though this is considered unlikely. The final administrative decision on the extradition rests with the Czech Minister of Justice, Jeroným Tejc. The lawyer and former Social Democrat was nominated for the post by the right-wing populist party ANO, led by head of government and billionaire Andrej Babiš.

Arrest and Background

Liebich was arrested in early April in Krásná near Aš in the Czech Republic, close to the German border, after months of a Europe-wide manhunt. She is currently held in extradition custody at the prison in Plzeň, where conditions are considered harsh. More than 1,200 inmates are housed there, including serious criminals.

The right-wing extremist was sentenced in July 2023—then still as a man with the first name Sven—by the District Court of Halle. Following the conviction, Liebich changed her gender from male to female and changed her name from Sven to Marla Svenja. Critics have described this as an abuse of the Self-Determination Act.