Per file published in 2011 by İHD’s Commission against disappearances in custody and press statement released by Cumartesi İnsanları on 18th April 2015, 1954-born Zeki Altunbaş was a former Ankara University student living in Yalova with a history of detention both before and after the 12th September coup. While he was serving military service in Çanakkale, he was taken into custody on 18th April 1981 based on the testimony of individuals arrested in Yalova. Two friends of Zeki Altunbaş, who saw him while in custody in İstanbul noticed that he had signs of torture on his body and looked very weak. Two police officers and two soldiers who were accompanying him to Yalova for proceedings alleged that he had jumped into the sea through the toilet window on the ferry. His family applied to authorities to obtain information on his alleged disappearance, to no avail.

Zeki Altunbaş has not been heard from or seen, nor have his bodily remains been found.