Hundreds of doctors and medical students staged a rally at the South Sulawesi prosecutor's office in Makassar on Tuesday, protesting the arrest of three doctors accused of malpractice.

The three doctors are Dewa Ayu Sasiawan, Hendry Simanjuntak and Hendy Siagian. The obstetrician-gynecologists were arrested on malpractice allegations concerning the death of a patient identified as Julia Fransiska Simanjuntak at the Prof Kandauw hospital in Manado, North Sulawesi.

The doctors performed a cesarean section on Julia and although her baby survived she died during the surgery. 'Our three colleagues tried so hard to save the patient,' said urologist, Abdul Azis, who was also the coordinator of the protest.

Based on the autopsy results, Abdul went on, the death of the patient was caused by amniotic fluid embolism, an obstetric emergency which caused cardio-respiratory collapse.

The protesters called on the prosecutor's office to immediately release their three colleagues and urged the office to stop criminalizing doctors.

Obstetrician-gynecologists in Makassar also plan to go on strike for two days at their private clinics in protest at the arrests. They will, however, provide emergency treatment for those patients who require it.