{{The body of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is to be exhumed on Tuesday, Palestinian officials say.}}<\/p>\n
His body is to undergo tests to find out whether his death in Paris in 2004 was caused by poisoning.<\/p>\n
Arafat’s medical records say he had a stroke resulting from a blood disorder.<\/p>\n
But France began a murder inquiry in August after Swiss experts hired by a documentary crew found radioactive polonium-210 on Arafat’s personal effects.
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\nAnalysis
\nimage of Richard Galpin Richard Galpin BBC News, Ramallah<\/p>\n
The chief investigator Taufik al Tirawi said they had recently asked the Russians to take part in this investigation because they had “an historical relationship” with Moscow.<\/p>\n
It seems the Palestinians do not fully trust France and Switzerland when it comes to proving or disproving that their former leader was murdered.<\/p>\n
It is not known how long it will take the three countries to complete their tests. But it will be a key moment – and it is possible they will reach different conclusions.<\/p>\n
While most Palestinians are certain their leader was murdered, there are serious questions about the validity of testing for polonium poisoning eight years after Mr Arafat’s death. The half-life of polonium is less than five months.<\/p>\n
His tomb, in Ramallah in the West Bank, was sealed off earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Once the body is removed from the tomb inside the stone-clad tomb mausoleum, scientists from France, Switzerland and Russia will each take samples, former Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi told reporters.<\/p>\n
The experts will then take these samples to their respective countries to be tested for Polonium 210 and possibly other lethal substances.<\/p>\n
Arafat’s body will be reburied the same day with military honours.<\/p>\n
Arafat, who led the Palestine Liberation Organisation for 35 years and became the first president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, fell violently ill in October 2004 at his compound.<\/p>\n
Two weeks later he was flown to a French military hospital in Paris, where he died on 11 November 2004, aged 75.<\/p>\n
His widow, Suha, objected to a post-mortem examination at the time, but later appealed to the Palestinian Authority to permit the exhumation “to reveal the truth”.<\/p>\n
Many Palestinians continue to believe that Israel poisoned him. Israel has denied any involvement. Others allege that he had Aids.<\/p>\n
In 2005, the New York Times obtained a copy of Arafat’s medical records, which it said showed he died of a massive haemorrhagic stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder caused by an unknown infection.<\/p>\n
Independent experts who reviewed the records told the paper that it was highly unlikely that he had died of Aids or had been poisoned.<\/p>\n
A murder inquiry was launched by French prosecutors in August after an investigation by al-Jazeera TV, working with scientists at the Institute of Radiation Physics (IRA) at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, found “significant” traces of polonium-210 present in samples taken from Arafat’s personal effects, including his trademark keffiyeh headdress.<\/p>\n
In some cases, the elevated levels were 10 times higher than those on control subjects, and most of the polonium could not have come from natural sources, the scientists said.<\/p>\n
But the institute also said Arafat’s symptoms – as described in medical reports – were not consistent with polonium poisoning.<\/p>\n
{Wire Story}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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