The 13-year-old Russian girl living in Germany who claimed to have been abducted and raped by migrants have retracted her story regarding the incident. According to the representatives for the girl's family, the teenager, named Lisa, admitted that she was not sexual abused when she disappeared earlier this month.
On Jan. 11, 2016, Lisa's parents reported that their daughter was missing after she didn't show up for school in Marzahn, Berlin, according to The Guardian. Thirty hours later, she reappeared with bruises on her face. She then told her parents that men believed to be of North African or Middle Eastern descent abducted her near the region's train station and raped her.
However, through the work of investigators and other trained professionals, they were able to discover that the teen's allegations were false. After being questioned regarding the incident, Lisa admitted that she was not abducted nor raped. Instead, she intentionally decided to miss school due to her personal problems. Also, through data obtained from her mobile device, authorities were able to confirm that on the day of her disappearance, Lisa stayed inside the house of her 19-year-old German male friend, Deutsche Welle reported.
Prior to her confession, the incident sparked a huge controversy in the country which dented the relationship between Germany and Russia. The latter criticized the former for its alleged lack of initiative in investigating the matter. Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, accused Germany of trying to cover up the incident to downplay the number of sexual assaults by migrants in the country.
But aside from affecting the relationship between the two countries, the incident also heightened the German public's growing concern regarding their safety. As noted by The Telegraph, Lisa's claims happened only weeks after the sex attacks that occurred in the city of Cologne.
According to the site, during the New Year's Eve celebrations in the city, various cases of theft, rape and molestation were reported in Cologne. Authorities said perpetrators of the attacks were mostly migrants.
