On 20 October 2008 Prime Minister R. Tayyip Erdoðan visited Diyarbakýr. He was met with heavy protests in the Kurdish city, with the Kurdish people demanding to be heard and asking for a real commitment to peace.

Now, two years later, some of those who protested the Prime Minister were handed down heavy prison sentences. Mehmet Budak, Mehmet Ali Temel and Mesut Baðcýk were sentenced to a total of 21 years and 3 months in prison.

Diyarbakýr 4th Heavy Penal Court charged them with “committing crime on behalf of an illegal organization without being a member”, “making propaganda for an illegal organization” and “violating the law on meeting and demonstration”