A PERTH man captured by Libyan militia while trekking across the Sahara Desert has been released after intervention by Australian and British embassy officials.
Adventurer Tom Smitheringale was trying to trek 7000km across the desert from Egypt to Morocco when he was stopped and detained for 28 days in a militia-run prison in Benghazi.
The 41-year-old’s trek was to raise money for the Starlight Children’s Foundation.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Friday confirmed Australia’s embassies in Cairo and Rome had provided consular assistance to Mr Smitheringale and he had since been released.
The department said consular officials in Canberra had also assisted his family.
It is understood Australian officials worked with British officials to secure his release.
On his personal blog called One Man Epic, Mission Sahara, Mr Smitheringale wrote yesterday he was grateful for “the highly professional and thorough work done by the different agencies involved in negotiating my release”.
The former British army soldier wrote: “28 days in a Libyan Militia prison. The first 27 were the hardest. These people are definitely not to be trifled with.
“I can’t tell you enough how good it feels to see the sun again.”
Mr Smitheringale wrote it would be inappropriate for him to elaborate on the details of his capture and extraction as he was still in Libya.It is understood he has been flown to Turkey.
Australians have been warned not to travel to Libya since rebels rose up last year and toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
In 2010 Mr Smitheringale tried to become the first Australian and only the third person ever to trek to the North Pole unassisted.
But after falling through ice and developing hypothermia the self-styled “adventure chaser” had to be flown out by the Canadian military.
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