Rustamzade was a member of the Nida Civic Movement until 2020. He organised protests on 13 January 2013 as part of the "End Soldier Deaths" () campaign, following the death of a teenage soldier, Jeyhun Gubadov. On 9 March, the day prior to the planned second "End Soldier Deaths" protest, Rustamzade was arrested and detained alongside seven other members of Nida. They were subsequently charged by the Prosecutor General's Office on 17 May 2024 following a criminal complaint filed by the
Ministry of National Security of Azerbaijan. Amnesty International subsequently declared Rustamzade as being a prisoner of conscience. On 7 March 2019, the
European Court of Human Rights ruled that his ongoing detention was unlawful. On 17 March, Rustamzade was released after receiving a
pardon from the
President of Azerbaijan,
Ilham Aliyev. Following Rustamzade's release, he was elected to Nida's board of directors following its 2019 election. He was a founding member of the Movement () bloc in the
2020 Azerbaijani parliamentary elections, and ran as its candidate in the Nizami constituency. Rustamzade's candidacy was subsequently rejected on the grounds that he had previously been convicted with a serious crime under the
Criminal Code of Azerbaijan and had been released for less than three years. He appealed the decision, but it was upheld by
Central Election Commission and local courts. == Books ==