Yasser Arafat’s Body May Be Exhumed

By JTA July 4, 2012

Former Palestinian Authority head Yasser Arafat may have died of radioactive poisoning, Al Jazeera is reporting.

Reuters said Palestinian leaders had agreed to allow his body to be exhumed to perform tests that could confirm or refute the account.

Al Jazeera’s report released Tuesday, following a nine-month investigation, cites findings by The Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland to suggest that he was poisoned with polonium-210.

The laboratory used clothing, a toothbrush and other personal effects, provided by Arafat’s widow, Suha. Suha Arafat has called for her husband’s body to be exhumed, in order to test his bones for the radioactive element.

“I can confirm to you that we measured an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported polonium-210 in the belongings of Mr. Arafat that contained stains of biological fluids,” said Dr. Francois Bochud, the director of the institute, according to Al Jazeera.

Arafat died eight years ago, after suddenly becoming ill in October 2004,

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