Sisi proposes ‘law to curb police abuses’

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told the interior minister on Friday to make accountable any policeman who attacks citizens and to submit proposals to parliament to achieve this goal, the presidency said.

The meeting came a day after a police officer shot dead a man in the street, angering hundreds of people who protested in front of the Cairo security directorate on Thursday in the latest outburst over alleged police brutality.

A statement from the Cairo security directorate said the policeman had shot dead a driver after an argument and was forced to flee a mob of local people who attempted to catch and kill him. Police later found the policeman.

Footage posted on social media showed hundreds of people massing outside the security directorate to protest the death.

The incident comes amid mounting public anger over alleged police brutality. Last week, thousands of doctors held a rare protest against police they say beat two doctors at a Cairo hospital for refusing to falsify medical records.

Anger over perceived police excesses helped fuel the 2011 revolt that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule and began on a Police Day holiday.