Student arrested for the 6th time on the charge he was acquitted before

* Rıdvan Akbaş and his mother Sabire Akbaş in the bazaar where he was working.

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Arrested five times before for reasons such as "joining a press statement" or "chanting slogans", Rıdvan Akbaş, a student of Ankara University Faculty of Languages, History and Geography, is arrested again.

Imprisoned in Silivri No. 1 Closed Prison at the outskirts of İstanbul, Rıdvan Akbaş's last arrest came after an operation targeting the İdil Cultural Center of Grup Yorum music band in İstanbul's Okmeydanı. He was taken into custody there and arrested on August 11, 2020.

Court of Cassation upheld the acquittal

In January 2010, five students of Ankara University were arrested for "being members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) / KONGRA-GEL, Maoist Communist Party (MKP), Communist Labour Party of Turkey / Leninist (TKEP/L), Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C)"; they served 11 months behind bars. Rıdvan Akbaş was one of those students charged with membership of the four outlawed organizations.

He was acquitted and his acquittal was upheld by the Court of Cassation in 2017, five years after the lawsuit had been filed.

Most recently, he was detained during the police raid on İdil Cultural Center in Okmeydanı, İstanbul on August 5, 2020. Arrested together with discharged academic Nuriye Gülmen, Rıdvan Akbaş will have his first hearing at the İstanbul 28th Heavy Penal Court on June 10 at 12 p.m.

He goes to different cities for visitation

Emir Karakum, who is a friend of Rıdvan Akbaş from his hometown Samsun and visits him everytime he is put in jail, has sent a letter to bianet regarding the current imprisonment of Akbaş.

Emir Karakum has written the following about his friend:

"This is the 6th time that Rıdvan is arrested. Yes, several people are in prison in the country due to their opinions, Rıdvan is not an exception. But why is a person arrested 6 times? Some of the reasons for his previous arrests were: Joining the protests for free education, joining the protest demonstrations [against the mining activities] in Artvin's Cerattepe...

"Rıdvan's family lives in Yeşilova village of Samsun. His father used to make a living by doing electrical work. But he has been unable to work for a year due to a disorder that has affected his right hand. His mother sells the products from their two cattles and a small agricultural field at Unkapanı bazaar. When her son was arrested again, her diabetes has relapsed."

Unable to his family's voice for 10 months

In his letter, Karakum has also shared some information about the prison conditions of Akbaş, briefly saying:

"His family has been unable to go to the visitation due to the pandemic and their diseases. Every month, I go from Samsun to Silivri to see Rıdvan. My visits to him in prison dates back to 2016, when he was arrested in Bolu Prison. He was released afterwards. A year later, he was arrested again. I went to the visitation in Kocaeli Prison in 2017. I now visit him in Silivri.

"I will keep visiting him in prison without getting tired; but I wish that our friendship in prison will not last long and this injustice come to an end.

"Since Rıdvan was arrested, he has been unable to hear the voice of his family. He has been unable to exercise his right to make a phone call; since August, when he was arrested, he has sent the necessary documents to the prison administration for a visitation by phone several times, but the prison administration has not put the documents in process.

"After every visit of mine to Rıdvan, I go and visit his family, I tell them about his condition. I hope that he will be released on June 10 and reunite with his family. Lots of love from the Black Sea..." (AS/SD)