General

Software creator John McAfee finally arrested in Guatemala

Belize PM says McAfee’s claims are ‘bonkers’

John McAfee sits next to an INTERPOL agent after his detention in Guatemala City on Dec. 5, 2012. (Policia Nacional Civil Handout/Reuters

Software creator John McAfee has finally been arrested in Guatemala after a very public month-long hideout.

McAfee, who had been living in Belize since 2008, has been wanted for questioning by police in that country since his neighbour was found dead with a bullet wound to the head on Nov. 11.

While your run-of-the-mill runaway would likely do his best to disappear completely, McAfee contacted journalists frequently while in hiding, even appearing on CNN in the days before his capture. He also started a website, where he has mainly talked about his time on the run, bragged about his much younger female companion, Sam, and ranted about corruption in the Belize government.

McAfee’s propensity for publicity was ultimately his undoing. He invited journalists from Vice magazine to join him and, on Dec. 3, one of those journalists took a photo with an iPhone that had the geotagging information left in it. The photo, posted under the headline “We are with John McAfee right now, suckers,” made McAfee the true sucker when it showed that he was now in neighbouring Guatemala, near the Belize border.

McAfee was arrested in Guatemala Wednesday, writes The Telegraph, and the Guatemalan interior minister says he will be sent back to Belize for entering the country illegally.

For his part, McAfee says that he will be executed if he is extradited to Belize and he has hired a lawyer to argue for his political asylum, something the U.S. embassy has already said it cannot help with.

Belize, however, says that McAfee is not facing death and that he should aid in the investigation into the death of his former neighbour, Gregory Viant Faull.

“I don’t want to be unkind, but he seems to be extremely paranoid — I would go so far as to say bonkers,” Prime Minister Dean Barrow said in Belize City, according to a report from Reuters. “He ought to man up and respect our laws and go in and talk to the police.”

McAfee has continued his blog, even after being arrested: “I am in jail in Guatemala. Vastly superior to Belize jails. I asked for a computer and one magically appeared. The coffee is also excellent,” he wrote early Thursday morning in one post.

McAfee was the creator of the McAfee antivirus software. McAfee sold his stake in McAfee Associates in 1994.

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