Swiss lab to analyse Arafat remains for radioactive poisoning

A nine-month investigation by Al Jazeera found elevated levels of polonium on some of Arafat’s belongings. Was he poisoned?

A SWISS RADIOLOGY lab has confirmed that it will test the remains of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for polonium poisoning after receiving the go-ahead from his widow.

The experts from the Lausanne University Hospital Centre, which also got the green light from the Palestinian Authority, will travel to the West Bank to take samples from the body, a spokesman for the lab said.

The probe was requested by the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas after a media investigation found elevated levels of polonium, a radioactive substance, on some of Arafat’s belongings.

Arafat’s widow, Suha Arafat, and their daughter filed a lawsuit on 31 July in France over the radioactive poisoning claims. They lodged the complaint for murder against persons unknown in France because Arafat died at a military hospital near Paris in 2004.

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Yasser Arafat, pictured in 2004. AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen

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