Report shows high levels of polonium behind Arafat's death

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Report shows high levels of polonium behind Arafat's death

(Xinhua) 08:13, November 07, 2013

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GAZA, Nov. 6 -- Swiss scientists found at least 18 times the normal levels of radioactive polonium in the tested samples taken from late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's remains, al-Jazeera TV reported on Wednesday.

The Qatari-based TV channel report said the scientists were confident that up to an 83 percent level that Arafat was poisoned with polonium.

Al-Jazeera said it had exclusively obtained the 108-page report, which was issued by the University Centre of Legal Medicine in Lausanne, in Switzerland.

"The report shows that high levels of polonium were found in Arafat's ribs and pelvis, and in soil stained with his decaying organs," said al-Jazeera.

French and Russian teams, along with the Swiss scientists, took the samples from Arafat's grave in the West Bank city Ramallah a year ago.

Al-Jazeera also quoted Suha Arafat, the late Palestinian leader 's widow, as saying that she received a copy of the report in Paris on Tuesday.

"When they came with the results, I'm mourning Yasser again. It 's like you just told me he died,"Arafat's widow told the Qatari TV channel.

By October 2004, towards the end of the second Palestinian intifada, or Palestinian Uprising, Arafat had been confined for more than two years in his Ramallah presidential compound by Israeli troops.

According to escorts close to Arafat , he was elderly and frail but in good health and did not have any particular risk factor.

On October 12, 2004, Arafat suddenly fell ill after eating a meal. But Arafat's heath deteriorated swiftly and doctors failed to pinpoint the source of his sickness.

On Oct. 29, a wan and weak Arafat was carried in a wheelchair from his headquarters. He waved and blew kisses to the crowd surrounding his headquarters and was put aboard a helicopter and taken to Jordan.

From there a French government plane carried him to Paris for emergency treatment at Percy military hospital. French doctors were unable to diagnose or halt Arafat's decline and he soon lapsed into a coma.

On Nov. 11, 2004, Arafat, who symbolized the fight for Palestinian statehood, died at the age of 75.

Meanwhile, Ali Muhana, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) minister of justice told Xinhua the PNA can't declare or publish the results at this moment.

"We don't have any comment to al-Jazeera report because we haven't received a copy of the report. We are waiting for the return of the members of the committee to investigate Arafat's death and then we will make our final announcement," said Muhana.