Source: BBC
The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned with radioactive polonium, says a Swiss forensic report obtained by al-Jazeera.
Arafat’s official medical records say he died in 2004 from a stroke resulting from a blood disorder.
But his body was exhumed last year amid continuing claims he was murdered.
The Swiss report said tests on the body showed “unexpected high activity” of polonium, which “moderately” supported the poisoning theory.
Many Palestinians and others have long believed that Israel poisoned Arafat. Others allege that he had Aids or cancer. Israel has consistently denied any involvement.
A spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry said the Swiss investigation was “more soap opera than science”.
‘Hole in theory’
The scientists – from the Vaudois University Hospital Centre (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland – carried out a detailed examination of Arafat’s medical records, samples taken from his remains and items he had taken into the hospital in Paris where he died in 2004.
Swiss scientists’ findings
- Experts at the Vaudois University Hospital Centre (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland, conducted tests on samples taken from Yasser Arafat’s exhumed body in November 2012
- Samples also analysed by Palestinian, French and Russian teams, whose findings have yet to be published by the Palestinian Authority
- Swiss report says “unexpectedly high levels of polonium-210 and lead-210 activity” found in specimens taken from Arafat’s ribs, pelvis and soil that absorbed his bodily fluids
- It notes a lack of adequate biological specimens, particularly soft tissues, and the eight years between death and the investigation, rendering detection subject to uncertainties
- But it concludes results “moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210”
They concluded that their results “moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210”.