Three capital vendors were briefly detained by cops in Por Sen Chey district over the weekend for torturing an alleged thief by forcing her to shave all her hair off.

The three were initially detained under an order from the municipal court prosecutor.

After catching a woman in her twenties who they say stole a mobile phone from their Prey Tea market stall on Thursday, Song Heng, Nam Narith and Hok Kim Horn saw that all her hair was shaved off.

Yim Saran, the district’s police chief, confirmed that the suspects had been freed after being detained briefly.

“The woman who was accused of being a thief was released before the police arrived [at the scene]. The issue is done with,” he said.

According to a video about the case that is circulating on social media, the three were detained for a day and questioned before being released.

Several fellow vendors in the market stood behind their actions, claiming they just wanted justice for what had happened.

“[The three] did nothing wrong. They are owners of the items, so it is not right. They did not understand the law as they are normal people."

“The police should explain to them. We ask [police] to release them because they are good citizens in the village and never had problems with anyone,” they said.