THESE ARE THE WORDS OF A COLLEAGUE WHO WERE AT THE COURTHOUSE AND WHO WITHNESSED THE INCIDENT:

These are the words of a colleague who were at the courthouse and who witnessed the incident :

“We were in that area where and when the incidents happened. It happened like this (as we were told by others about what happened before we arrived and as we have witnessed ourselves afterwards): By noon, lawyers inside the doors of the courthouse (the ones near the statues) started protesting the police intervention at Taksim Gezi Parki this morning by clapping. Afterwards, riot police entered the courthouse upon instructions of the public prosecutor (just like it happened many times in the past) and started their assault on the protesting lawyers. The police started pushing our colleagues with their shields towards the exit and meanwhile, the private security in the courthouse toppled the search checkpoints at the entrance and helped create a police barricade towards which the police pushed our colleagues and circled them. In this chaos, two lawyers were taken into custody by the court police. While other lawyers protested strongly against the police, a lady repeatedly made an announcement from the courthouse intercom that “people watching from balconies and those who participated in the incident near the statues would be taken into custody.” Upon the insistence of the lawyers outside the court, two other lawyers were permitted to go with our colleagues in custody as observers. In the meantime civil police and uniforms were filming everything and all lawyers who participated. Afterwards, our colleagues who were protesting the detentions by sitting were assaulted once again by the riot police who re-entered the courthouse, handcuffed with plastic bands and then taken into custody. Our friends have informed us that 73 lawyers are in custody at the moment. All members of the Istanbul Bar Council administration came to the courthouse and are talking with the public prosecutor.”