Doctors stage rare public protest against police abuses

CAIRO (AP) - Thousands of Egypt's doctors staged a rare protest against police abuses after accusations two doctors were beaten up by policemen in a Cairo hospital.

At the headquarters of the doctors' union, known as the Egyptian Medical Syndicate, doctors threatened strike action if the police are not held accountable for abuses. Demonstrators chanted "strike" and raised banners that read: "dignity for doctors."

Such public protests rare under Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Following the ouster of his Islamist predecessor, voices of dissent were silenced and thousands of Islamists and activists were jailed.

The demonstration came in response to last month's assault on two doctors in Cairo's Matariya hospital, where one policeman pulled out a gun and others violently forced two doctors into a vehicle before driving them to a police station.