US film-maker held in Libyan jails for six months describes his joy at release

[riverwalker]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/29/us-filmmaker-libya-jail-release?CMP=twt_gu


US film-maker held in Libyan jails for six months describes his joy at release

Matthew VanDyke, from Baltimore, who thought he would never see freedom again is staying on until three friends are release.

David Smith in Tripoli
Monday 29 August 2011

Wan and thin after six months in solitary confinement, Matthew VanDyck shudders as he recalls the effects of falling through the cracks in a warped and lawless Libya.

"It does incredibly unbelievable things," the 32-year-old film-maker says of his incarceration. "I'm still coming to terms with what I went through. It's absolutely shocking. I'm not really ready to talk about the extent of what went on psychologically to me.

"I would rather they had just taken me out and beat me, even every day, than go through the solitary confinement, because what it does psychologically is astonishing. I had no idea that the brain could work in the ways that it did in my case." {snip}