Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Graffiti depicting late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza City. Bernat Armangue/AP
poisoned

Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned by radioactive polonium

Tests revealed at least 18 times the normal levels of radioactive polonium in his remains according to new station Al-Jazeera.

YASSER ARAFAT WAS poisoned with the radioactive substance polonium according to Swiss scientists who have carried out tests on his body.

The claim was made by news station Al- Jazeera America who say that the result “moderately supports” polonium as the former Palestinian leader’s cause of death.

The station have published the results of the tests which found at least 18 times the normal levels of radioactive polonium in his remains.

Arafat died in hospital in France in November 2004 at the age of 75, but doctors were unable to specify the cause of death. No autopsy was carried out at the time, in line with his widow’s request.

Some 60 samples were taken from the remains of the late Palestinian leader in November last year for a probe into whether he was poisoned by polonium. The samples were divided between the Swiss and Russian investigators and a French team carrying out a probe at the request of Arafat’s widow Suha.

image(1995 photo showing President Bill Clinton gesturing toward Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, and PLO leader Yasser Arafat, right. Pic: AP Photo/Doug Mills)

Tests on these samples were concluded this week by Swiss and Russian forensic investigators with their reports now delivered to Palestinian authorities.

Official Palestinian news agency WAFA said that a Russian team appointed by the Palestinian Authority also handed in its report on  2 November and that its conclusions would be made public in due course.

Arafat’s remains were exhumed from his tomb in the West Bank city of Ramallah in November 2012 and samples taken, partly to investigate whether he had been poisoned — a suspicion that grew after the assassination of Russian ex-spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.

Additional reporting by © – AFP

Read: Taken from their home, blindfolded and interrogated – for ‘throwing stones’ >

Read: US Secretary of State urges Palestinians against settlements reaction >

Your Voice
Readers Comments
139
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.