Chris Brown Files Counter-Complaint Against Woman Who Accused Him of Rape

Chris Brown has filed a false accusation complaint against the 24-year-old woman who alleged that he raped her in Paris last week, the New York Times reports. The defamation charge, should it be investigated as a criminal matter, “carries a penalty of five years in prison and a fine of around $50,000.”

The woman claimed that Brown, a convicted domestic abuser, raped her in his hotel room at the Mandarin Oriental after his January 15 performance at a club called Le Crystal. She also said she was raped by one of Brown’s bodyguards, and later, assaulted by another one of his friends. The story broke on Tuesday via the French publication Closer, which reported that the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation. Hours later, Brown denied the claims on a since-deleted Instagram that read “THIS B!TCH LYIN’” with a caption, “I WANNA MAKE IT PERFECTLY CLEAR…… THIS IS FALSE AND A WHOLE LOT OF CAP!” He was brought in for questioning by the French police but released without charges 24 hours later, per Page Six.

On Wednesday, the French newspaper Le Parisien ran an interview with the accuser, who remains anonymous. She told the paper—via New York Times’ translation—“My life’s shattered. If I filed a complaint, it’s not for the money. If anything, I want justice. And to make sure the horror of what I went through does not happen to another girl.”