Surfacing in public for the first time in weeks, software company founder John McAfee says he plans to ask for asylum in Guatemala, saying he fears persecution in Belize.

McAfee is now at a hotel in Guatemala City after sneaking out of neighboring Belize, where police have called him a person of interest in the November slaying of a fellow American ex-pat.

He tells The Associated Press that he will petition the Guatemalan government to allow him to stay. McAfee has said he fears he will be killed if he turns himself in for questioning in Belize.

McAfee has spent weeks narrating his life on the lam through emails, blog posts and calls to reporters.