Egypt's Doctors Syndicate have called for an emergency meeting Saturday to decide on "escalatory steps" after Matariya Teaching Hospital physicians withdrew their complaints of assault "under pressure" against a group of policemen. The syndicate's head Ehab El-Taher told Ahram Online that the two doctors, Ahmed Mahmoud and Moemen Abdel Azeem, who were assaulted by a group of policemen, were put under pressure to withdraw their complaints after they discovered in the prosecution that the policemen filed complaints against the doctors, claiming that they were assaulted by them. El-Taher said that the policemen have fabricated charges of assault against the doctors. "The prosecution told the doctors that all those involved in the incident were to be detained pending investigations; therefore the doctors unfortunately withdrew their complaints, which we completely portray as unacceptable" El-Taher said. "This incident is a violation and degradation by the police against citizens," he added. El-Taher said that a complete strike in hospitals in response to the incident might take place, depending on what the syndicate decides in its joint meeting with the syndicate's Cairo sub-committee. On Thursday, the syndicate said it fully supports a strike by doctors at the hospital, adding that it had forwarded a complaint to Egypt's prosecutor-general about the alleged attack, which took place that morning. A low-ranking policeman wearing civilian clothes went to the hospital on Thursday morning with a wound on his face, and asked the doctor examining him in the ER to include fake injuries in the medical report, which he refused, sources in the hospital said. In retaliation, the policeman called a group of colleagues to the hospital who assaulted the doctor and some of his colleagues before taking them to the police station, where they were later released. source: Ahram Online
