US anti-virus software pioneer, John McAfee has said he was “100 percent certain” he would secure freedom from a Guatemalan detention centre within 24 hours.

The 67-year-old, who was arrested for making an illegal entry into the Central American country on December 5, told Sky News yesterday 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 Belizean police.

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 US 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”.

On life inside the detention centre, McAfee joked, “I’d rather be here than at home. “When I’m at home my wife asks me to do work, they’ve not asked me to do any work here”.

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