AfD candidate Alice Weidel, left, with former Christian Democrat Erika Steinbach | Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images German far-right leader accused of illegally hiring Syrian refugee: report Alice Weidel called report ‘fake news.’

Alice Weidel, a senior member of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), illegally employed a Syrian refugee to do housework at her home in Switzerland, according to a report by Die Zeit on Wednesday.

Weidel, one of the AfD's two lead candidates in the September 24 general election, reportedly hired an Islamic studies student to help around her house in Biel in 2015 who then passed on the job to a Syrian woman. The Syrian was paid cash-in-hand at a rate of 25 Swiss francs (roughly €22) per hour, which Zeit said is a typical wage in Switzerland. Weidel's partner is from Switzerland.

Sources close to Weidel told Zeit that the Syrian asylum seeker did not have a written work contract, nor were there invoices for her work.

Though Weidel is widely considered a liberal voice in the right-wing, populist AfD, she has used the refugee crisis to bolster support for her party, harshly criticizing Chancellor Angela Merkel's open door migration policy and calling for greater controls.

When asked by Zeit about the report, Weidel's lawyer said he needed time to respond because of the "very complex legal issues in terms of the legitimacy of remuneration rules."

Her lawyer also told Zeit that Weidel was "friendly" with a Syrian woman, who had stayed at her house as a guest but not as a worker, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Weidel later wrote on Twitter that the Zeit report was "fake news" and "false."

"Alice Weidel has at no point hired an asylum seeker, let an asylum seeker work for her, or paid an asylum seeker remuneration," said a statement posted to her Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Weidel further accused Zeit of not properly explaining that an annual wage of less than 750 Swiss francs (roughly €650) for doing housework would not need to be declared under Swiss law.

https://twitter.com/Alice_Weidel/status/908018927707594752

Weidel recently came under fire over a leaked email in which she allegedly described immigrants as “aliens” and “non-people.” She also reportedly called for the preservation of “genetic unity” and warned against the “self-defeated dissolution of our culture,” according to Die Welt. Weidel denied that she wrote the email.

The AfD is expected to win seats in the Bundestag later this month as the party is currently polling at between 8 and 11 percent. This would make it the first far-right party to enter the German parliament since World War II.