SWITZERLAND/FILE: A radiological institute says it has found traces of poisonous element polonium in some of the personal effects of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Record ID: 702212

  • Title: SWITZERLAND/FILE: A radiological institute says it has found traces of poisonous element polonium in some of the personal effects of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
  • Date: 4th July 2012
  • Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (FILE - OCTOBER 28, 2004) (REUTERS) (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) VARIOUS OF YASSER ARAFAT IN PYJAMAS AND WOOLLEN HAT SEATED WITH HIS DOCTORS
  • Embargoed: 19th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland, France, West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7TYHE2L7F233HK1N8R4AMZ4QM
  • Story Text: A Swiss radiological institute that says it found polonium on the personal effects of Yasser Arafat said on Wednesday (July 04) that the strongest measurements of radioactivity were found on the late Palestinian president's underwear and on his toothbrush.
    But Francois Bochud, whose CHUV radiophysics institute examined Arafat's effects, said it was not possible to formally conclude that the toxic element came from his body, or that he died of polonium poisoning.
    "What contained the most activity was the underwear of Mr Arafat, his Russian hat when he arrived in Paris -- or when he left Ramallah -- and his toothbrush. His toothbrush contained more radioactivity than the rest of the environment," Bochud said.
    Arafat died at a hospital in France in 2004 after a sudden illness which baffled doctors. Many Palestinians have long suspected he was poisoned.
    The items tested in Lausanne, Switzerland, were given to the institute by his widow.
    "One can't necessarily conclude that the polonium came from his body," Bochud said.
    "But it's one possibility that is worth being investigated more deeply. But one can't conclude with the measures that we carried out that he was poisoned with polonium. Having made the measurements, there is more of a possibility that there was a polonium contamination but one can't conclude that with absolute certainty, based on the measures that were carried out," he said.
    In a report aired by Al Jazeera news channel, Bochud said the only way to confirm the findings would be to exhume Arafat's body to test it for polonium-210.
    Polonium was found to have caused the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, and he was assumed to have been deliberately poisoned.
    Arafat led the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's fight against Israel from the 1960s but signed a peace agreement with the Jewish state in 1993, establishing Palestinian self-rule areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
    His mysterious death came four years into a Palestinian uprising, after years of talks with Israel failed to lead to a Palestinian state. French doctors who treated Arafat in his final days could not establish the cause of death.
    French officials refused to give details of his condition, citing privacy laws, fuelling a host of rumours and theories over the nature of his illness.
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