Software mogul John McAfee could be deported to Belize today, Thursday, after being detained by immigration officials, a Guatemalan official said. Authorities took McAfee into custody Wednesday, December 5, 2012, said Francisco Cuevas, a spokesman for Guatemala’s president, Otto Perez Molina.
“He entered the country illegally and we are going to seek his expulsion for this crime,” Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla said. McAfee was detained by Guatemalan police and a member of Interpol at the upscale Intercontinental hotel in Guatemala City.
After weeks in hiding and eluding authorities here in San Pedro, Belize, the 67-year-old Internet security pioneer emerged publicly on Tuesday, December 4, 2012, in Guatemala’s capital, hundreds of miles away from his home where his next-door neighbor was found dead.
Guatemala’s foreign minister said earlier on Wednesday, December 5, 2012, that officials there did not know how McAfee entered the country and that there was no record of McAfee entering legally at any official border crossing.
McAfee’s lawyer, Telesforo Guerra, filed a formal request for asylum with Guatemalan officials Wednesday. He said McAfee left Belize to escape police persecution. Guerra, who is a former attorney general of Guatemala, said it would take two to three weeks to secure asylum for his client.
Investigators in Belize have said that McAfee is not a suspect in the death of Gregory Faull, but that they want to question him.
Press Officer Raphael Martinez commented to Ambergris Today that Belize’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is dealing with this situation and that details on McAfee’s deportation to Belize will be forthcoming as the day progresses.
Click Here for ABC News interview with John McAfee Prior to his arrest
John McAfee makes headlines in Guatemalan Newspaper Prensa Libre as he sought assylum in the country prior to his arrest
