Draft:Kutaisi Blood Libel

The Kutaisi Affair (also known as the "Kutaisi Case" or the "Sarra Modebadze Case") was a case of blood libel that took place in Kutaisi Governorate (Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire) from 1878 to 1880. Nine Georgian Jews from the village of Sachkhere were accused of kidnapping and murdering a Christian girl by the name of Sarra Modebadze. They were tried in March 1879 at the Kutaisi Circuit Court. The case attracted attention all over the Russian Empire and beyond as it revived the myth of Jews sacrificing Christian children for ritual purposes. The accused were represented by the famous Russian lawyer Petr Aleksandrov, who had successfully defended the revolutionary Vera Zasulich the previous year. All defendants were acquitted. The Kutaisi prosecutor appealed against this verdict, but in April 1880, the higher judicial authority, the Tiflis Judicial Chamber, turned down the appeal, arguing that all the available evidence was tainted by antisemitic prejudice.