PARIS, (Reuters) – Singer Chris Brown said yesterday that a rape allegation against him was false, a day after the French prosecutor’s office said that he had been arrested in Paris with two other suspects.
Brown, who is a U.S. citizen, has been released from police custody as authorities were still investigating the case, the French prosecutor’s office added.
The arrests were first reported by Closer magazine, which said Brown, his bodyguard and a friend were detained after a 24-year-old woman alleged she was raped at the singer’s suite at the Mandarin Oriental hotel on the night of Jan. 15.
The woman said she had met the men at a Paris nightclub earlier in the evening, according to the magazine.
“I wanna make it perfectly clear … This is false,” Brown said in a post on his Instagram account. “For my daughter and my family, this is so disrespectful and is against my character and morals.”
Brown, 29, pleaded guilty to assaulting Rihanna, then his girlfriend, in 2009, an incident that made headlines around the world when a photo of her bruised face was released.
In 2016, he was arrested in Los Angeles after a woman said he had pointed a gun at her. Brown denied any wrongdoing.
A rape conviction in France can carry a sentence of 15 years.