As the Azerbaijani Laundromat scandal reaches German court, will there finally be some accountability?
For an autocracy, maintaining a clean reputation is a Sisyphean task. While the international news cycle moves quickly from one scandal to the next, some stains are not easily erased. Silencing members of the opposition, journalists, academics and other independent voices can provide temporary relief. Regimes that imprison or intimidate dissidents effectively kill two birds with one stone: from behind bars or under serious threat, it is much harder to raise awareness or criticise the wrongdoings of public officials, while at the same time there are fewer people left to tell the stories of those who have been imprisoned for…