US software guru John McAfee has been arrested by Guatemalan police for illegally entering the country.

The Guatemalan say that they will expel him to neighbouring Belize, which he fled after being sought for questioning over his neighbour’s murder. McAfee, 67, has been on the run for three weeks to evade authorities in Belize who wanted to quiz him as "a person of interest" about the killing of fellow American Gregory Faull. He had been hoping to get asylum in Guatemala.

However it appears that the Guatemalians were not that impressed. Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla said that McAfee had entered the country illegally and he wanted to expel him for this crime. McAfee's lawyer Telesforo Guerra said he would seek an injunction to have him released because there was no international arrest warrant for McAfee and Police in Belize say he is not a prime suspect.

McAfee thought he would get political asylum in Guatemala, which has been embroiled in a long-running territorial dispute with Belize. McAfee has said he believes authorities in Belize will kill him if he turns himself in for questioning. Belize's prime minister has denied this and called him paranoid and "bonkers."

There was already a case against McAfee in Belize for possession of illegal firearms, and police had previously raided his property on suspicion he was running a lab to make illegal synthetic narcotics. McAfee insists he has not taken drugs since 1983 when he went to Alcoholics Anonymous, and that was the end of it. McAfee says he has been persecuted by Belize's ruling party because he wouldn' t pay out some