Widow Files Complaint Over Yasser Arafat’s Death
Suha Arafat, the widow of Palestinian Authority head Yasser Arafat, will file a legal complaint regarding her husband’s unexplained death.
Suha Arafat will file the suit in a French court; she lives in France and Malta.
“Madame Arafat hopes that the authorities will be able to establish the exact circumstances of her husband’s death and uncover the truth, so that justice can be done,” her lawyer, Pierre-Olivier Sud, said in a statement.
The suit, expected to be filed by the end of the month, comes after an Al Jazeera report released last week cited findings by The Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, to suggest that he died of radioactive poisoning. The report followed a nine-month investigation.
Arafat died eight years ago after suddenly becoming ill in October 2004.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas gave his permission Monday to exhume Arafat’s remains in order to test for polonium-210. Suha Arafat had requested that her husband’s body be exhumed.
Israel has rejected accusations that it was responsible for the Palestinian leader’s death. Doctors previously have ruled out poisoning as a cause of death.
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