The national spokeswoman of Germany’s left-wing youth movement Solid has reportedly admitted that she lied to police about the ethnicity of three men who allegedly sexually assaulted her, because she was afraid of fueling racism against refugees.

Selin Goren, 24, told police in January that she was robbed by three men in Mannheim, where she works as a refugee activist, the Daily Mail reported.

Ms. Goren told officers that the men were a “mixed group” of foreigners and locals who were speaking German. After her initial interview, she returned to the police 12 hours later to tell them that she was sexually assaulted by the men who were of “Arab appearance” and speaking either Kurdish or Farsi.

In an interview with Germany’s Spiegel magazine published Sunday, Ms. Goren, who has visited refugee camps in Iraq, said she did not want to stoke more hatred against migrants in Germany, according to a translation by the Daily Mail.

Ms. Goren, however, urged women not to fear political correctness when reporting crimes.

In a Facebook post which she has since deleted from her page, she wrote: “What really hurts me is that it is a fact that the sexist and over the line incident that happened to me will inevitably lead to more aggression and racism,” the Daily Express reported.

“I do not believe that you the refugees are the problem, most of you are wonderful people. You have the same rights as everybody else to be safe and free.”

Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.