Sean Penn lied about El Chapo trafficking claim: lawyer

Hollywood star Sean Penn lied when he reported that Mexican kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán told him he is the world's foremost drugs trafficker, and he should be called to testify, one of Guzmán's lawyers said on Wednesday.

Guzmán was recaptured on Friday, six months after staging a spectacular prison break through a tunnel in his cell floor. While on the run, Guzmán met secretly with Penn at a jungle hideout - a move the government says was "essential" to his capture.

Penn published an article in Rolling Stone magazine on Saturday in which he quotes Guzmán boasting about his drug shipments and laundering money through major Mexican and foreign companies.

"Its a lie, absurd speculation from Mr Penn," Juan Pablo Badillo, one of a team of Guzmán lawyers, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

"In a way, yes, it does complicate it (his defense). Mr Penn should be called to testify to respond about the stupidities he has said," Badillo added.

He said that based on years of working Guzmán, he was certain he would not make such a self-incriminating statement. "He (Guzmán) could not have made these claims... Mr Guzmán is a very serious man, very intelligent," Badillo said.

"Where's the proof? Where's the audio?"

Neither Penn's publicist nor Rolling Stone replied to requests for comment on Wednesday.

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In the article, Penn said he was not allowed to record his in-person conversation with Guzmán. The Mexican fugitive later sent Penn a 17-minute video of answers after security issues stymied plans to hold a follow-up interview in person, and it does not contain the reported comments.

Penn, who met Guzmán along with Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, wrote that Guzmán proudly volunteered information on his illegal activities.

"I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world. I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats," Penn quoted Guzmán as saying.

A government spokesman said on Tuesday that Mexico was not directly investigating Penn or del Castillo but rather the circumstances around the meeting.

Badillo said he was poised to file a legal challenge on behalf of Guzmán, whom he has represented since 1993, against his being held in isolation. He rejected the government's assertion that Guzmán was being moved regularly from cell to cell as a security precaution.

The legal challenge is not a new tactic for Guzmán's lawyers. Badillo filed seven previously during Guzmán's incarceration and after his escape.

Badillo successfully filed a challenge while Guzmán was on the run seeking to bar security forces from killing him as they sought to capture him.

He declined to elaborate on his wider legal defense strategy, which is aimed at avoiding Guzmán's extradition to the United States, where he is wanted on an array of charges.

Badillo said he saw no conflict in accepting payment for legal services from a wanted drug trafficker, saying all Mexican's have a right to a defense in court. He declined to say how much Guzmán pays him.