Maryland writer held in Tripoli escapes prison

BALTIMORE - The mother of a Baltimore writer missing since March in Libya says she has spoken with her son and that he has escaped from a Tripoli prison.

Sharon VanDyke says her 32-year-old son, Matthew, called her Wednesday afternoon to tell her he had escaped. VanDyke told his mother he had been held in solitary confinement in Abu Salim prison in Tripoli, but fellow prisoners helped him escape to a compound where he borrowed a phone.

VanDyke traveled to Libya this winter to write about the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi and disappeared in March.

Initially, Libyan officials denied that VanDyke was being held, but they acknowledged during talks with Hungarian officials late last month that he was in custody. U.S. officials were trying to confirm sightings of VanDyke.

VanDyke traveled throughout the Middle East, including Iraq and Afghanistan, from 2007 to 2009. He visited Libya for six weeks in 2008 and had kept in touch with friends there, Sharon VanDyke said. He planned to be at home for a year working on a book on his travels, but he found himself distracted by the events in the Middle East, she said.

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