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Belize PM: McAfee boss is 'bonkers', should 'man up and talk to cops'

Cybersecurity pioneer 'paranoid' over murder probe, says prime minister

Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow has called the founder of McAfee antivirus software "bonkers" and "extremely paranoid", wading into discussion over internet guru's decision to first hide in the sand and then go on the run from the police in the Central American country.

"I don't want to be unkind," said the PM in remarks reported by Reuters, "but he seems extremely paranoid - I would go so far as to say bonkers. He ought to man up and respect our laws and go in and talk to the police."

Belizean police have been trying to question John McAfee after his neighbour Gregory Faull, 52, a fellow American expat, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the back of his head. A recent report says that the police are not considering him a suspect.

After hearing the police arrive, McAfee's first course of action was to hide in a cardboard box in the sand, something he described as "extremely uncomfortable" but considered necessary because he feared the police would try to kill or torture him. He is currently still on the run, though has been giving interviews to Wired magazine describing how he has been hiding in boats, taxis and sleeping in lice-infested beds. McAfee also described how he had dyed his hair, eyebrows and moustache black:

“I have modified my appearance in a radical fashion,” McAfee told the mag. “I’ll probably look like a murderer, unfortunately.”

John McAfee mentioned the Belizean prime minister's personal dislike of him as one of his motives for going on the run from the police, adding that Belizean police were out to get him: "They’ve been trying to get me for months. They want to silence me. I am not well liked by the prime minister."

PM Barrow says that this is "nonsense" and that he has never met the cybersecurity guru. ®

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