Belize's prime minister called anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee “bonkers” and told him to help the country's police with a murder inquiry. McAfee is on the run after someone he had a row with was found with a bullet in the back of his head. He told the Western Press that if the police catch him they will kill him for something he did not do.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow said in Belize City that McAfee is extremely paranoid and he 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, he said. Belizean police want to question McAfee, 67, about the murder of his neighbour Gregory Viant Faull, 52, with whom McAfee had quarrelled. McAfee denies he bumped off Faull and claim the cops are trying to frame him.

"You can say I'm paranoid about it, but they will kill me, there is no question. They've been trying to get me for months," Wired magazine's website quoted McAfee as saying. He also said that he was not well liked by the prime minister and the “bonkers” quote does seem to back that up.

Barrow called McAfee's statements "nonsense," noting he had "never met the man" and that the media attention McAfee had attracted was offering him "the best possible safeguard." He said that the police have not said he is a suspect and certainly there is no question at this point of charges pending. The police would have to act extremely cautiously in the full glare of the public spotlight, he pointed out.