UK Edition
German politician admits lying about ethnicity of sex attackers to avoid fuelling racism
A Left-wing German activist has reportedly admitted to lying to police about the ethnicity of men who allegedly raped her.
Selin Gören, a 24-year-old spokeswoman of youth movement Solid, has said she didn’t reveal the men’s ethnicities because she was afraid of fuelling racism against refugees.
Gören was allegedly attacked by three men in January in Mannheim, late at night in a playground.
She said she was forced to perform a sex act on her attackers, and immediately reported the sexual assault to the police.
But she did not tell them that the men were speaking Arabic and Farsi. Instead she said she was robbed and her attackers were a “mixed group” of foreigners and locals who spoke German.
Twelve hours later she returned to the police to tell them the truth after a friend convinced her to be honest.
In an interview with Germany’s Spiegel magazine, the refugee activist has said she was aware of the backlash suffered against migrants after mass sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year’s Eve.
She told the magazine she did not want to ignite “more hatred against migrants in Germany.”
The 24-year-old wrote an open letter to a fictional letter and posted it on Facebook – which has since been deleted – reportedly writing: “I am really sorry that your sexist and line-crossing treatment of me could help fuel aggressive racism.
“I'm going to scream... I will not stand by and watch, and it can happen that racists and concerned citizens name you as the problem. You're not the problem. You're usually a wonderful human being who deserves as much as any other to be safe and free.
“I will not stand by and watch and let it happen that racists and concerned citizens name you as the problem.”
A group called Gesa in Kassel - Active Together Against Sexual Violence – told the Daily Mail that sexual assaults by many male migrants have increased.
“The perpetrators often come from cultures with a different image of women,” said Steffi Burmester.
“They are alone and looking to banish their humiliation of flight with confirmation of their masculinity. This is neither to apologise nor to accept their actions, it is how it is.”