Software pioneer McAfee expects to be freed soon

LONDON – U.S. anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee said on Tuesday he was “100 percent certain” he would gain freedom from a Guatemalan detention center within 24 hours.

The 67-year-old, who was arrested for illegally entering the Central American country on Dec. 5, told Sky News that he expects to be leaving for the United States “soon.”

McAfee’s request last week for asylum was denied because he entered Guatemala illegally while fleeing a police murder inquiry in Belize.

Authorities in Belize want to question him about the death of 52-year-old Florida expatriate Gregory Faull, who was found by his housekeeper with a 9-mm bullet in his head, lying in a pool of his own blood.

When asked what the chances were of being sent to the United States and avoiding extradition to Belize, McAfee replied: “100 percent. I think later today there will be more information about that.”

McAfee insists he had nothing to do with the killing on the palm-fringed island of Ambergris Caye, where both men lived, and told Sky News he left “for his own safety.”

“I cannot ever return to Belize,” he added. “There is no hope for my life if I am ever returned to Belize.”

Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow has called McAfee “extremely paranoid, even bonkers.”

The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday reported that McAfee secured a deal with Canadian production company Impact Future Media to develop a project based on the software mogul’s life.

The website revealed the title of the tentative TV biopic to be “Running in the Background: The True Story of John McAfee,” and will likely encircle the McAfee’s computer programming career and slew of recent legal battles.