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Moscow asks Germany to share all details of suspected "teen rape case"

It concerns the case of a teenage Russian girl, whose absence from her family in Berlin for more than a day sparked wide public alarm
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Valery Sharifulin/TASS
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

ASHGABAT, January 28. /TASS/. Moscow is urging Germany to present all information being gathered in the process of investigating the case of a teenage Russian girl, whose absence from her family in Berlin for more than a day sparked wide public alarm. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov believes that full transparency will help avoid misunderstanding between the parties concerned.

"I am certain that if the German authorities present all necessary information, there will be far less misunderstanding," Lavrov told a news conference in Ashgabat.

"Since a Russian citizen is involved, we have the right to not just wait for the investigation to be completed. In accordance with all rules that there exist in the civilized world we are entitled to being informed about this or that incident involving Russian citizens. In this particular case that was not done on time. This explains why different interpretations of the affair followed," he said.

Lavrov added that "in this case we received information not from official German sources, but from the Russian-speaking community first, then from the family’s lawyer and then from the parents of the teen-age girl, Liza."

"I am certain the more transparency there is, the more information there is about our citizens who find themselves in unusual situations, let alone such serious ones, the better it will be for our relations and nobody will have any doubts as to what is propaganda and what is intervention in internal affairs," he said.

Lavrov disagreed with those who say Germany’s foreign minister made a harsh response to his remarks made at Tuesday’s news conference devoted to the results of 2015.

"I cannot agree with those who believe that Frank-Walter Steinmeier made a harsh response to my comments. He just called for waiting for the results of the investigation to be made available and not to fan propaganda in the mass media. This is precisely what we have been asking for. We would like to see the findings as soon as possible," Lavrov said.

Russia’s Channel One narrated the story of teen-age girl Lisa, 13, two weeks ago. The broadcaster quoted the girl’s relatives as saying she had been reportedly raped by migrants. The German police confirmed that the girl had been listed missing for one day. She resurfaced 30 hours later. The official police report said the investigators found no evidence of abduction or rape.

The case sparked public outrage. According to rumors circulating in social networks the German police were not taking proper legal measures. The law enforcers replied they would not tolerate groundless charges of inactivity.