Forensic tests ’reveal that Yasser Arafat was poisoned by polonium’ in 2004

mangaloretoday.com

Palestine, Nov 7: Yasser Arafat was assassinated by polonium poisoning, his widow claimed yesterday. Tests carried out by Swiss experts found the Palestinian leader had unexpectedly high levels of the radioactive substance in his body.

The former leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation died in November 2004, a month after falling ill. He was 75.

 

Polonium-210 is the same substance that was used to kill defecting Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 at a London hotel.

 

Speaking out: Suha Arafat, wife of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, speaks with reporters yesterday

’We are revealing a real crime, a political assassination,’ said Suha Arafat in Paris yesterday after receiving the results of Swiss forensic tests on her husband’s corpse.

A team of experts, including from Lausanne University Hospital’s Institute of Radiation Physics, opened Arafat’s grave in the West Bank city of Ramallah last November, and took samples from his body to seek evidence of alleged poisoning.

’This has confirmed all our doubts,’ said Mrs Arafat, who met members of the Swiss forensic team in Geneva on Tuesday.

’It is scientifically proved that he didn’t die a natural death and we have scientific proof that this man was killed.’

She did not accuse any country or person, and acknowledged that the historic leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization had many enemies.

 

Arafat signed the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords with Israel and led a subsequent uprising after the failure of talks in 2000 on a comprehensive agreement.

Allegations of foul play surfaced immediately.

Arafat had foes among his own people, but many Palestinians pointed the finger at Israel, which had besieged him in his Ramallah headquarters for the final two and a half years of his life.

The Israeli government has denied any role in his death, noting that he was 75 years old and had an unhealthy lifestyle.

An investigation by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television news channel first reported last year that traces of polonium-210 were found on personal effects of Arafat given to his widow by the French military hospital where he died.