Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has suggested that former leader Yasser Arafat’s body should be exhumed after an Al Jazeera report said that he may have died due to poisoning.
Following a nine-month-long investigation, the broadcaster found that clothes, toothbrush, and his kaffiyeh that were the last items possessed by Arafat had elevated levels of the highly radioactive element polonium, meaning that he may have been poisoned.
“There are no political or religious reasons that prevent researching this issue,” Nabil Abu Rudeinah, a spokesperson for Abbas, told the Qatar-based satellite TV channel. “Including the exhumation of Arafat’s body by a reliable and trustworthy medical and scientific authority.”
Suha Arafat, the wife of the former leader, said that an investigation should take place immediately.
Researchers with the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne in Switzerland, which found that the items belonging to Arafat had high levels of polonium, said that his bones would have to be examined for a more complete result. Most of the polonium found on his items did not come from a natural source, they found.
Israel has denied any responsibility for Arafat’s death in late 2004.
The Israeli domestic intelligence chief, Avi Dichter, said Arafat’s “body is in their hands,” referring to the Palestinians, according to YNet News, citing local media.
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