| Palestinians seek probe into Arafat’s death |
OCCUPIED RAMALLAH The Palestinians on Wednesday called for an international probe into Yasser Arafat’s death, raising the possibility of his exhumation, after a report said he may have been poisoned.
The call came a day after Al Jazeera broadcast the results of a nine-month investigation it commissioned on Arafat’s 2004 death, which found the Palestinian leader could have been poisoned with the radioactive substance polonium.
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat called for an investigation into Arafat’s death.
“We call for the formation of an international investigation committee, modelled on the international investigation committee set up to look into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri,” he said.
And Tawfiq Tirawi, who led a Palestinian probe into Arafat’s death, said Palestinian authorities would be willing to allow an analysis of samples from the leader’s remains — which are buried in Ramallah — if his family agrees.
“After the Al Jazeera broadcast I met president (Mahmoud) Abbas today and recommended accepting an analysis of the body of Arafat, and Abbas agreed on the condition that the family ... accepts,” he said.
The Al Jazeera probe centred on forensic testing of items belonging to Arafat, including clothing worn by him, which were handed to his widow Suha by the Paris hospital where the Palestinian leader died in 2004.
Suha Arafat gave Al Jazeera permission to take the items, which contained strands of Arafat’s hair and traces of sweat, urine and blood, for testing.
Darcy Christen, spokesman for the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, said on Tuesday it had found “surprisingly” high levels of polonium-210 in Arafat’s belongings.
But he stressed that clinical symptoms described in Arafat’s medical reports were not consistent with polonium-210 and that conclusions could not be drawn as to whether Arafat was poisoned or not.
“I can confirm to you that we measured an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported polonium-210 in the belongings of Arafat that contained stains of biological fluids,” Francois Bochud, director of the institute, said in the documentary.
Agencies
|
 |
|
|
| NEWS UPDATES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
