Switzerland :Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was murdered by radioactive Polonium
Cairo : Alsahafa
scientists in Switzerland have revealed that Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned to death with radioactive polonium.
Experts revealed that several belongings and items of clothing belonging to Arafat, including his toothbrush, hat and underwear, contained high 'unexplained levels' of the radioactive material. The material is the same as that used to murder former Russian spy Alexander Litvenenko in London in 2006.
Arafat, who died after falling ill at his headquarters in the West Bank, after suffering from symptoms of nausea, stomach pain and kidney and liver failure - signs consistent with radiation poisoning.
Arafat died in France on November 11, 2004, at the age of 75, but at the time doctors were unable to specify the cause of death.
Many rumors had surrounded Arafat's death specially after doctors couldn't identify the cause of death.
Suggestions ranged from the aspersion that he had died from HIV to claims that rivals had poisoned him.
Speculation continued unabated when his widow Suha refused a post-mortem examination on her husband's body.
But she changed her mind and asked judges in France last year to launch a murder probe into her husband's death, claiming he was poisoned because he was an 'obstacle to peace'.
Experts at Lausanne's Radiation Physics Institute have now released details of the tests which 'support the possibility' he did not die of natural causes, because the lack of hair loss and a shortage of bone marrow and other tests on his body fluids that contained unexplained higher level of polonium.
These findings support the possibility of Arafat's poisoning with polonium 210.'
They examined 37 items of Arafat's clothing and compared levels of polonium with a similar number of uncontaminated items.
Computer projections, which estimate the speed at which the radioactive material breaks down, suggested that the levels of polonium 210 would have been consistent with a 'lethal ingestion'.
The British medical journal The Lancet published The team findings, they said they regretted that no post-mortem investigation was carried out after Arafat's death.
Polonium breaks down quickly in the human body and is difficult to trace if there is a delay.
The researchers added: 'An autopsy would have been useful in this case because although potential polonium poisoning might not have been identified during that procedure, body samples could have been kept and tested afterwards.'
Mrs Arafat's lawyer Pierre-Olivier Sud told the French media: 'Suha Arafat hopes that the authorities will be able to establish the exact circumstances of her husband's death and uncover the truth, so that justice can be done.
'She and her family want the truth and nothing but the truth. There is no question of any ideological or political exploitation.'
Mrs Arafat also told Arabic TV channel Al Jazeera in July 2012 that both the US and Israel had regarded her husband as 'an obstacle to peace'.
She added: 'I want the world to know the truth about the assassination of Yasser Arafat.'
Arafat had been confined by Israel to his headquarters in Ramallah when he fell ill in October 2004.
He was then given permission to be taken to the Percy military hospital near Paris, telling aides before he left: 'God willing, I will be back.'
But less than a month after arriving, he slipped into a coma and died on November 11, 2004.
Doctors who treated him said at the time he may have died of a blood clotting disorder and ruled out poisoning.
French daily Le Monde reported at the time that it had 'very good sources' who had revealed he died of a condition called disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC).
It described the condition as 'the complete disruption of the mechanisms which normally assure proper blood clotting and can lead to major internal bleeding and possible death'.
The paper quoted one doctor as saying: 'We also worked on the question of poisoning, using sophisticated techniques, before concluding with a negative.'
While Palestinians say that any evidence that Arafat was poisoned would suggest that Israel was somehow involved, an Israeli Government spokesman has rubbished those suggestions.
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