Yasser Arafat poisoned by polonium: Report

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Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat

THE former Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004, was poisoned by polonium, according to the findings of research carried out in Switzerland and cited in an Al-Jazeera report on Tuesday.

The analysis focused on biological samples taken from the late Palestinian leader’s belongings given to his wife Suha by the military hospital in Paris where he died, according to Francois Bochud, head of the Institute of Radiation Physics at University of Lausanne.

“The conclusion was that we did find some significant polonium that was present in these samples,” Bochud said.

Arafat died in 2004, following several weeks of treatment. At that time Palestinian officials said he had been poisoned by Israel , but an inconclusive probe in 2005 ruled out cancer , AIDS or poisoning.

He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and leader of the Fatah political party, which he founded in 1959. Arafat spent much of his life fighting against Israel in the name of Palestinian self-determination. Originally opposed to Israel’s existence, he modified his position in 1988 when he accepted UN Security Council Resolution 242. Agencies

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