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FILE PHOTO: Software pioneer John McAfee is escorted by immigration officers to the Guatemalan Airport in Guatemala City December 12, 2012. \u00a9 REUTERS\/Jorge Dan Lopez<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
RT.com<\/p>\n
A Spanish newspaper has claimed that John McAfee survived a first suicide attempt in prison earlier this year. The antivirus magnate\u2019s actual death in a cell is being treated as suicide, but his family and fans are doubtful.<\/p>\n
McAfee was found dead in his prison cell in Barcelona earlier this week, hours after a Spanish court approved his extradition to the US to face charges of tax evasion and other financial crimes. McAfee was reportedly found hanging, and Spain\u2019s Ministry of Justice is treating his death as a suicide.<\/p>\n
According to a report in\u00a0La Vanguardia<\/a>\u00a0on Saturday, McAfee tried and failed to kill himself back in February, when he was housed in a different block of the Sant Esteve Sesrovires prison near Barcelona.<\/p>\n Citing\u00a0\u201csources familiar with the incident,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0La Vanguardia claimed that McAfee\u2019s cellmate alerted guards after the businessman sliced his arms with knives he had concealed inside a book. McAfee was reportedly taken to hospital and treated for his injuries, but a psychiatrist later determined that his wounds were superficial, and didn\u2019t represent a\u00a0\u201creal desire of the inmate to take his own life.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n McAfee was moved to another block of the prison shortly after the incident, where he died this week.<\/p>\n Citing confidentiality rules, the Ministry of Justice did not reveal any details of McAfee\u2019s alleged suicide attempt in February to La Vanguardia. Likewise, his lawyer in Spain was unaware, as was his widow, Janice McAfee. According to the newspaper, the only reason such details would have been kept a secret would be if McAfee had requested so.<\/p>\n Janice McAfee has insisted that her husband did not commit suicide, and has blamed US authorities for his death. McAfee himself had repeatedly claimed throughout the years that he could be killed in prison and his death made look like a suicide.\u00a0\u201cKnow that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he tweeted from behind bars last year, referencing the mysterious death of billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a Manhattan jail a year before.<\/p>\n Accusing\u00a0\u201cUS officials\u201d<\/em>\u00a0of threatening him, McAfee declared in 2019,\u00a0\u201cIf I suicide myself, I didn’t. I was whackd [sic].\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Another interview clip from that year went viral on Friday after journalist Glenn Greenwald shared it. In the\u00a0clip<\/a>, McAfee said any suicide in his future would be fake and insisted he had a\u00a0\u201cdead-man\u2019s switch\u201d<\/em>\u00a0that would trigger the release of unidentified sensitive documents.<\/p>\n As internet sleuths pick through a lifetime of cryptic statements from McAfee, the official line on his death is still some time off. Authorities have said McAfee\u2019s autopsy could take\u00a0\u201cdays or weeks.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0The late entrepreneur\u2019s lawyer, Javier Villalba, said a second and independent autopsy has already been requested.<\/p>\n