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Swiss radiation experts have confirmed they found traces of polonium on clothing used by Yasser Arafat which "support the possibility" the former Palestinian leader was poisoned.
In a report published by the medical journal The Lancet, the team provide scientific details to media statements made last year that they found polonium on Arafat's belongings.
Arafat died in France on November 11, 2004, aged 75, but doctors were unable to specify the cause of death. No autopsy was carried out at the time, in line with his widow's request.
His remains were exhumed in November last year and samples taken, partly to investigate whether he had been poisoned.
The suspicion grew after the assassination of Russian ex-spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.
In the Lancet report, eight scientists working at the Institute of Radiation Physics and University Centre of Legal Medicine in Lausanne said they had carried out radiological tests on 75 samples.
Thirty-eight samples came from Arafat's belongings, including underwear and a toothbrush, that were provided by his widow Suha Arafat.
These were checked against 37 "reference" samples of cotton clothing that had been kept in an attic for 10 years and protected from dust.
"Several samples containing body fluid stains [blood and urine] contained higher unexplained polonium 210 activities than the reference samples," says the case report.
"These findings support the possibility of Arafat's poisoning with polonium 210."


Polonium found on clothing of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat

A mural depicts the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the Qalandiya checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Photo: Reuters

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World

Swiss radiation experts have confirmed they found traces of polonium on clothing used by Yasser Arafat which "support the possibility" the former Palestinian leader was poisoned.
