A Stung Treng provincial military police commander is countersuing a buffalo trader who accused the commander of beating him unconscious when he attempted to reclaim confiscated buffalo.

In a complaint filed at Stung Treng provincial court, buffalo trader Chay Bun, 52, alleges that despite a court order allowing Bun to take back 24 buffalo military police confiscated in October, military police held on to nine.

When Bun attempted to reclaim the last of his livestock last week, Bun’s lawsuit says, military police commander Eang Vandy ordered his men to detain and beat him.

But Vandy, who rejects Bun’s accusation that he was beaten unconscious and eventually forced to thumbprint an admission that he stole two buffalo, has countersued Bun for defamation.