Based on a recent report published by the Associated Press, Yasser Arafat’s remains have been exhumed for death investigation. A team of international forensic experts will subject the lifeless body to multiple analyses to determine whether Arafat was poisoned or not.
Yasser Arafat was hospitalized in France in 2004 after falling ill unexpectedly. A month later, more specifically, in November 2004, he suffered a powerful stroke and was declared dead. Although doctors established the immediate cause of his death, the illness that affected Arafat in the last weeks of his life continues to remain a mystery until this day.
As a result, officials have taken the decision to exhume Palestine’s former president and carry out a proper investigation related to his death. Their suspicions have also been fueled by the recent discovery of a lethal radioactive substance called Polonium-210 on some of Arafat’s clothes. Palestinians think their former leader might have been poisoned by Israeli officials, but the latter have denied all the allegations.
Yasser Arafat’s body was removed from his mausoleum in West Bank city of Ramallah and taken to a nearby mosque where Palestinian doctors have collected the first samples from his bones. Although Islam prohibits non-Muslims to touch the remains of a Muslim, the body will nevertheless, be handed to French, Russian and Swiss experts who will examine the body in their home countries. Additional samples have been taken from his bedroom and his personal belongings as experts hope to find a lead that could help them solve the mystery of Arafat’s death.
Palestinian official Mahmoud Labadi is convinced the investigation will prove that the leader was poisoned. “This exhumation reveals the facts and reveals that Arafat’s death was not natural death,” he told CBS. Unlike Labadi, Arafat’s family opposed the exhumation because they think there are other problems that need to be solved before the investigation.
The results of the investigation will most likely be communicated after a couple of months. Experts claim the exhumation might have been in vain as Polonium-210 is a substance that decomposes rapidly, so doctors may not be able to find any traces of poison on Arafat’s body.
