GUATEMALA CITY: US anti-virus software guru John McAfee, who is on the run from police in Belize seeking to question him in a murder probe, has crossed into Guatemala and said he will seek political asylum there.
McAfee has been in hiding for three weeks since police in Belize said they wanted to question him as ‘a person of interest’ about the murder of fellow American Gregory Faull, with whom McAfee had quarreled.
McAfee smuggled himself and his girlfriend, Samantha, across the porous land border that Belize shares with Guatemala. He stayed at a hotel in a national park before heading for Guatemala City on Monday evening.
‘I have no plans much for the future now. The reason I chose Guatemala is two-fold,’ McAfee told Reuters on Tuesday by telephone from Guatemala’s Supreme Court, flanked by his lawyer, former attorney general and lawyer Telesforo Guerra.
‘It is a country bordering Belize, it is a country that understands the corruption within Belize and most importantly, the former attorney general of the country is Samantha’s uncle and I knew that he would assist us with legal proceedings.’
McAfee has denied involvement in the murder and told Reuters on Monday he would not turn himself in. He posted repeatedly on his blog while on the run, describing how he would constantly change his disguise to elude capture.
McAfee says he believes authorities in Belize would kill him if he turned himself in for questioning. Belize’s prime minister has denied the claim and called the 67-year-old paranoid and ‘bonkers.’ There was already a case against McAfee in Belize for possession of illegal firearms, and police had previously raided his property on suspicion he was running a lab to make illegal synthetic narcotics. (Reuters)