Palestinians demand Arafat ‘killing’ probe
Print Edition
Palestinian officials demanded a global probe into the killing of Yasser Arafat yesterday as Swiss experts said test results showed “moderate” backing for the theory he had been poisoned.
With the scientific analysis purportedly showing how the Palestinian leader had died, a senior figure in the Palestine Liberation Organization called for an international inquiry to determine who was responsible.
But speaking to reporters in Lausanne, the Swiss team said the test results neither confirmed nor denied that polonium was the actual source of his death, although they provided “moderate” backing for the idea he was poisoned by the rare and highly radioactive element.
They said the quantity of the deadly substance found on his remains pointed to the involvement of a third party.
“We can’t say that polonium was the source of his death... nor can we rule it out,” said Professor Francois Bochud of the Lausanne Institute of Applied Radiophysics.
Bochud’s lab, which is part of Switzerland’s respected Vaudois University Hospital Center, measured levels of polonium up to 20 times higher than it is used to detecting.
“By definition, that indicates third party involvement,” he said. “Our results offer moderate backing for the theory of poisoning.”
Arafat died in France on November 11, 2004, at the age of 75 after falling sick a month earlier, but doctors were unable to specify the cause of death.
In November 2012, his remains were exhumed and samples taken, partly to investigate whether he had been poisoned — a suspicion that grew after the assassination of Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
Since Arafat’s death, Palestinians have long suspected he was murdered with Israel most often blamed. With the publication of the Swiss report, Palestinian officials said there was no longer any doubt, and demanded a formal international inquiry into who was responsible.
“The results prove Arafat was poisoned by polonium,” said senior PLO official Wasel Abu Yusef. “This substance is owned by states, not people, meaning that the crime was committed by a state,” he said, calling for an “international committee” to probe the killing.
Arafat’s widow Suha told Euronews the poison must have been administered to her husband by a traitor in his entourage.
“This must have been put in his tea or in his coffee or in his water. Somebody who was near him must have given him this,” she said. “It’s so difficult to doubt, but unfortunately it’s somebody (from) his entourage.”
Other senior Palestinian officials agreed that the limited availability of polonium-210 strongly suggested the involvement of a foreign government.
“The means used and the fact it was polonium, which only states use, suggest that it was a decision taken at a high level in one of those countries,” senior PLO executive Ahmed Majdalani said.
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