Update | Swiss report backs theory Yasser Arafat was poisoned
Team's tests on the remains of Palestinian leader reportedly support suspicions his death in 2004 was the result of poisoning by radioactive polonium
Nine years of mystery and intrigue surrounding the death of Yasser Arafat, the symbol of the Palestinian national struggle, took a contentious turn on Wednesday with the publication of a forensics report by Swiss scientists that lends support to the theory that Arafat died of poisoning with radioactive polonium-210.
Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based Arabic television channel, reported the findings of the Swiss team and posted what it said was a copy of the team's 108-page report on its website.
I am mourning Yasser again. I don’t know who did it
The news channel has been instrumental in advancing the theory that Arafat was poisoned with polonium, a radioactive element that became widely known following the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent who became a critic of the Russian government. He died in London in 2006 after drinking polonium-contaminated tea.
The University of Legal Medicine in Lausanne, Switzerland, said it had been approached by a reporter for Al-Jazeera English on behalf of Suha Arafat, Yasser Arafat's widow, in January last year. Providing a travel bag containing personal effects that Arafat had taken with him to the French military hospital where he died, Al-Jazeera commissioned a forensic examination.
The Swiss institute found "an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported polonium-210" in Arafat's belongings and recommended further testing. Those results led to an exhumation a year ago.
Along with the Swiss, Russian and French teams were assigned to test the remains in an effort to resolve questions about Arafat's death in November 2004 at age 75, given the suspicions among his supporters and others that he had been killed by agents of Israel or by Palestinian rivals.