Ilkin Rustamzade

Rustamzade was a member of the Nida Civic Movement until 2020.^[5] He organised protests on 13 January 2013 as part of the "End Soldier Deaths" (Əsgər ölümlərinə son) campaign, following the death of a teenage soldier, Jeyhun Gubadov.^[2][6] 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.^[3] On 6 May 2014, Rustamzade was sentenced to eight years imprisonment, alongside his co-defendants.^[7]

Amnesty International subsequently declared Rustamzade as being a prisoner of conscience.^[8] On 7 March 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that his ongoing detention was unlawful.^[9] On 17 March, Rustamzade was released after receiving a pardon from the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.^[10][11]

Following Rustamzade's release, he was elected to Nida's board of directors following its 2019 election.^[12] He was a founding member of the Movement (Hərəkət) bloc in the 2020 Azerbaijani parliamentary elections, and ran as its candidate in the Nizami constituency.^[13][14] 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.^[14]

On 2 July 2020, Rustamzade announced that he had resigned from the Nida board of directors, and had left the organisation altogether.^[15]

Rustamzade has published four books, including a memoir, Yoldaş (lit. 'Companion'), about his friendship with Bayram Mammadov.^[16]