Yasser Arafat died of natural causes says Russian report
euronews (in English)
2013-12-26
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Yasser Arafat died of natural causes not radiation poisoning, according to Russian forensics experts.
They are the latest to give an opinion on the former Palestinian leader’s mysterious death in 2004.
His body was exhumed eight years later and samples taken by Swiss, French and Russian scientists. It followed a TV documentary which said Arafat’s clothes showed high amounts of deadly polonium 210.
The Swiss said their tests were consistent with polonium poisoning but not absolute proof of the cause of death.
France, which had opened a murder inquiry, ultimately agreed with Russia that the
75-year-old was not, in fact, killed by polonium.
The official cause of death was a stroke but, nearly a decade after Arafat’s funeral, many Palestinians are convinced that Israel killed him – a charge it denies.
The latest findings have been branded “politicised” by a Palestinian official who has vowed that the investigation into Arafat’s death will continue.
They are the latest to give an opinion on the former Palestinian leader’s mysterious death in 2004.
His body was exhumed eight years later and samples taken by Swiss, French and Russian scientists. It followed a TV documentary which said Arafat’s clothes showed high amounts of deadly polonium 210.
The Swiss said their tests were consistent with polonium poisoning but not absolute proof of the cause of death.
France, which had opened a murder inquiry, ultimately agreed with Russia that the
75-year-old was not, in fact, killed by polonium.
The official cause of death was a stroke but, nearly a decade after Arafat’s funeral, many Palestinians are convinced that Israel killed him – a charge it denies.
The latest findings have been branded “politicised” by a Palestinian official who has vowed that the investigation into Arafat’s death will continue.
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