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On November 5, the National Assembly (Parliament) of Azerbaijan will consider a bill on amnesty timed to the Victory Day in the 2020 autumn war, marked on November 8. The amnesty will cover more than 15,000 people, but will not cover political prisoners, human rights defenders have noted.

The educational conversation with relatives of the girls who took selfies on the balcony in Gudermes continued the trend of persecuting social network users for "inappropriate" behaviour, a political analyst believes. Some Instagram users have treated the release of the video with the girls as an intrusion into their privacy.

After Saudi Arabia has lifted a number of restrictions related to coronavirus, the Muslim believers, who had been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates or the CIS countries, are allowed to enter the kingdom for making a small Hajj, said Bulat Kurbanov, Director General of the "Marwa" Tour Hajj Company. The first air flight is scheduled for December 15.

Ambulance drivers in Yerevan have announced a strike demanding higher wages and complaining about a tight working schedule. Their bosses have referred to the pandemic as the reason for the high workload and called on the strikers to negotiate.

On the Remembrance Day of Deportation Victims, flowers were laid at memorials in the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR). The law on commemorating victims of political repressions, adopted in 2016, has brought no visible results in the republic, Kyady Haji Khalkechev, the chairman of the Congress of the Karachai people, has noted.

The story of Adam Gisaev, a native of Chechnya, who claimed torture in a SIZO (pre-trial prison) in Irkutsk, which provoked a complaint by the “Roskomnadzor” (the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media), is true, and such reports have been received from other convicts from prisons in the Irkutsk Region, human rights defenders note.

The remains of 11 people were handed over to Karabakh rescuers through the mediation of Russian peacekeepers.

Six persons arrested in Istanbul on a charge of political espionage were planning to kill natives of Chechnya on orders of a top-ranking Chechen official, the Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization reported.

Law enforcers kidnapped a resident of Chechnya, suspecting him of non-traditional sexual orientation, kept him in a basement and beat him during a month, the victim said. After fleeing Chechnya, the man was helped with finding housing in another city, the “Russian LGBT Network”* reported.

In Azerbaijan, journalist Elchin Gasanzade and blogger Ibragim Turksoi were released from prison after serving the sentence in a case on slander and insult. Both activists will go to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to challenge the legality of the verdict.

Said-Mukhammad Djumaev, a native of Chechnya, sentenced to five years of imprisonment for fighting with law enforcers at a protest action, was convicted on political grounds. This was announced by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”. The human rights defenders demand to reconsider the Djumaev’s case.

On October 31, in Tbilisi, two local men attacked two transgender women with knives; as a result one woman died, and the other was wounded.

Azerbaijani authorities have introduced new criteria for defining disability; and the review of the entitlement to benefits has led to delays in payments and refusals to certify disability, local residents have complained.

The opposition should seek to overthrow the ruling power and early parliamentary elections, Mikhail Saakashvili, a former Georgian President, has stated. His advocate fears that Saakashvili, who is on a hunger strike for 32 days already, may be kidnapped if transferred to a hospital in Gori.

Ravil Rasulov, who died at the SIZO (pre-trial prison) in the Volgograd Region, could have been tortured, Igor Nagavkin, a human rights defender, has stated, adding that there were traces of beatings on Rasulov's body. Ravil's wife has also denied the version of his suicide.

In the city of Novocherkassk, Rostov Region, two inmates of a maximum security colony have climbed onto the roof of a building and set fire to their clothes in protest against removal to another detachment.

Peacemakers have brought essentials, clothes and shoes to refugees and large families in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Russian Ministry of Defence has informed.

In North Ossetia, an assistant to the chief of a penal colony did not stop the violation of the rules of behaviour by prisoners at night, which led to the death of one of them, investigators suggested.

In Dagestan, without a QR code or a coronavirus survival certificate, people are not allowed to visit shopping centres or go to the market, and visitors to cafes must also produce the above-mentioned documents, local residents say. The innovation affected the activities of small businesses, as the number of cafe visitors decreased significantly, entrepreneurs note.

Sixteen officials are found guilty of using violence against more than 100 suspects accused of cooperation with the Armenian special services and the preparation of acts of sabotage and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. The above has been announced by the Deputy General Prosecutor of Azerbaijan.