Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat did not die of poisoning, a French prosecutor told the French news agency AFP, despite rumors to the contrary.
Arafat’s widow, Suha, had filed legal action in July 2012 asking French authorities to look into claims that her husband was poisoned. Traces of radioactive polonium were found on Arafat’s belongings. French prosecutors in August 2012 opened a murder inquiry, and Arafat’s tomb in Ramallah was opened to allow teams of French, Swiss and Russian investigators to collect samples.
Russian experts have maintained that Arafat was not poisoned. Now the French experts “maintain that the polonium 210 and lead 210 found in Arafat’s grave and in the samples are of an environmental nature,” prosecutor Catherine Denis of Nanterre, France told AFP.
Arafat led the Palestine Liberation Organization for 35 years and became the first president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996. He fell violently ill in October 2004 and died two weeks later, at 75, in a Paris military hospital. Doctors ruled out foul play; some had contended that Arafat died of AIDS.
Many Palestinians continue to believe that Arafat was poisoned by Israel. Israel has denied any involvement. — jta