US Citizen Arrested Over Violent Bar Fight in Sihanoukville

A U.S. national was arrested in Sihanoukville on Thursday morning for severely beating an Israeli tourist on Wednesday night, according to police.

The victim, 40-year-old Samuel Arie Edery, claimed that 35-year-old Vitaly Leydeker stabbed him in the head and throat during a bar brawl, but police maintained that no weapons were used.

Men Vanny, chief of the Preah Sihanouk provincial police’s minor crimes bureau, said the two men had been drinking at the same bar and began fighting at about 7:45 p.m.

“Edery was injured on his forehead and ear, and no weapons were involved,” he said.

Mr. Leydeker, who was born in the Ukraine, was charged with assualt and possession of stolen property in New York in 2008, according to the New York Post.

Mr. Edery said on Thursday that he had met Mr. Leydeker while traveling and arranged to meet him at a guesthouse on Victory Hill, where the fight broke out.

He said police had urged him not to press charges and instead accept $400 in compensation from the perpetrator.

Mr. Leydeker is being held at the provincial police station, and will be sent to court today, Mr. Vanny said.

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