Arafat widow OKs Swiss lab’s poisoning probe

GENEVA: A Swiss radiology lab said yesterday it had received the go-ahead from the widow of Palestinian president Yasser Arafat to test his remains for poisoning by polonium, a highly radioactive element.
“We are waiting for a formal, written letter from the lawyer before traveling to Ramallah” to carry out the probe, a spokesman for the lab at the Lausanne University Hospital Center, Darcy Christen, told AFP.
“Time is of the essence, you could say it’s a question of weeks, not months, because the traceability of polonium diminishes by half every 138 days,” Christen said, noting that this has occurred 20 times since Arafat died aged 75 on November 11, 2004.
The Palestinian Authority also approved the probe, which was requested by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas after a media investigation found elevated levels of polonium on some of Arafat’s belongings, including clothing he wore before he died at a military hospital outside Paris.
A statement from French lawyers acting for Arafat’s widow Suha Arafat and their daughter Zawra welcomed the authority’s comments.
“We are glad that the position of the Palestinian Authority is to accept the exhumation of the body of Yasser Arafat,” Pierre-Olivier Sur and Jessica Finelle wrote.
“However, we consider that this act of enquiry should be in coordination with the French investigating system... which should appoint an investigating judge to conduct the necessary enquiries,” the statement said, adding that such an appointment must be made “very quickly.”
French doctors had offered no explanation for Arafat’s death, and many Palestinians believe he was poisoned by Israel.
The Swiss team will first carry out a fact-finding mission during which they will meet representatives of the Palestinian Authority, inspect Arafat’s mausoleum and assess technological and scientific capabilities on the ground, Christen said.