The lawyers were at the Justice Hall to file for damages against Cicek for what they said was his insistent ignorance of the hunger strike of attorney Bahic Asci that has entered its 212th consecutive day to improve conditions in Turkey's F-type maximum security prisons.
Attacked and beaten by police officers as they gathered to file their case, some of the lawyers were injured and attempts were made to detain them.
In a written statement he issued, TIHV Executive Board Chair Yavuz Onen said "We condemn this terrible incident where the law has been trampled, where the execution of a lawyers profession and the right to seek justice have been prevented and where events have reached the point of beating up lawyers inside of the Justice Hall." He called for appropriate measures to be taken.
Onen said the lawyers were beaten, that they were insulted and some had physically been dragged out of the building and thrown on the sidewalk. He said a number of lawyers including Ebru Timtek, Naciye Demir and Guray Dag had been injured in the incident and attempts had been made to detain the group.
Onen added that in order to prevent further access to the building, the police had barricaded the Justice Hall in the aftermath of the incident and left the premises only under subsequent instructions from the prosecutor's office.
Referring to the attack as "an incident which has never before been seen" Onen recalled that the rights of lawyers, inclusive of what could be done with their possessions and how they were allowed to fulfill their duties, were guaranteed under the law.
"It is not possible to find any resemblance to a state of law in the arbitrary behavior of the police inside the Justice Hall" Onen said. "Also, the very fact that the prosecutor intervened and the lawyers filed their complaint [afterwards] shows the incident itself was not outside of the law but that the police prevention was illegal". (KO/II/YE)
