When Ted Jonas arrived in Georgia from the United States 30 years ago he paid little heed to the frequent power cuts, absent heating and street gang warfare.

Instead the Ivy League graduate fell in love, married a Georgian and ran successful legal practices, in the process becoming a Georgian citizen.

Two weeks ago he was beaten, kicked and punched in the head and body by the security forces, arrested and dumped in a police van and then held for hours in a police station, vomiting and concussed. Dozens of others were arrested alongside him.

Their crime? Taking part in mass protests against a draft law that has triggered some of the biggest unrest in the small Caucasian country since independence from the Soviet Union

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