Thousands of doctors in Egypt have staged a rare protest against police abuses after accusations that two doctors were beaten up by policemen in a Cairo hospital.
The doctors’ union also voted to offer free services in public hospitals and to call a partial strike in two weeks time unless the officers involved are held accountable, measures are taken to protect medics from police intimidation and the health minister submits his resignation. At the headquarters of the doctors’ union, known as the Egyptian Medical Syndicate, medics on Friday chanted “strike” and raised banners that read: “dignity for doctors.”
“I am the doctor, who is going to stitch my injury?” read one banner raised by a young female doctor. Next to her a medic raised a sign that depicted a rifle shooting at a white doctor’s coat together with the caption: “police are thugs.”
Such public protests rare under Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, where voices of dissent are largely silenced.
The demonstration came in response to a 28 January assault on two doctors in Cairo’s Matariya hospital. According to online and televised testimonies of the doctors who came under attack, the incident took place after one of the doctors described the cut on the officer’s forehead as “simple” and said it didn’t require stitches. The policeman then attacked the doctors, before a colleague joined him, pulled out a gun and began to threaten the hospital staff.
The two policemen were later joined by more officers from a nearby police station. They dragged the two doctors into a bus to take them to a police station. On the way to the vehicle, one policeman stomped on a doctor’s head with his boots.
One of the doctors involved is Moamen Abdel-Azzem, who said he filed an official complaint at the police station. He said he later withdrew his complaint for fear of arrest after the police officers filed a counter-complaint accusing the medics of beating them up.
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