Post date: Dec 14, 2012 1:2:0 PM
U.S. software pioneer John McAfee signed autographs and posed for photos in Miami Beach after his escape from Belize where he is wanted for questioning in a murder he says he did not commit.
MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 13, 2012) (REUTERS) - McAfee, who is staying in Miami Beach said on Thursday (December 13) that he had nothing to do with the murder of his former American neighbor Gregory Faull.
Faull was fatally shot in November in the Central American country Belize. McAfee fledBelize saying he feared for his life and he made his way secretly to Guatemala. Authorities there deported him to Miami on Wednesday."Let me be clear about that. I had absolutely nothing to do with the murder in Belize," said McAfee.
Police in Belize want to question McAfee as a "person of interest" in Faull's killing but authorities there say he is not a prime suspect. McAfee said he barely knew Faull.
"I never had dinner with him. I've spoken fifty words to him. I don't drink. I don't do drugs. Everybody on the island drinks heavily. I don't associate with anybody except my own employees who are required not to drink and do drugs. So I knew him hardly at all," he said.
Speaking on Thursday outside a Miami Beach oceanfront hotel where he spent the night, McAfee said he had been persecuted in Belize because he refused to pay $2 million in bribes.
"They send forty two armed soldiers on to my property shot my dog, held me in a torture pose with my hands handcuffed behind me for fourteen hours. Try that, after six the pain becomes unbearable." "Because I didn't give them money" "Two million," said McAfee.
McAfee said he had been forced to leave behind his girlfriend and would wait in Miami Beach until she received a U.S. visa.
Belize police say their country's extradition treaty with the United States extends only to suspected criminals, a designation that does not apply to McAfee.
McAfee, an eccentric tech pioneer, made a fortune from the anti-virus software bearing his name and had lived in Belize for four years.
McAfee has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Faull's killer. A spokesman for the Keeneys, the murdered man's stepfather and mother, called that "a hollow gesture" and said if McAfee really wants to solve the murder he would meet with the Belize police and answer their questions.