A report by a
respected British medical journal the Lancet, has supported
the possibility that late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
was poisoned with the radioactive element polonium 210.
The
journal published a peer review of last year’s research by
Swiss scientists. It backed their work, which found high
levels of the highly radioactive element in blood, urine,
and saliva stains on Arafat’s clothes and toothbrush.
The
Palestinian leader died in 2004 in a French hospital near
Paris, after being effectively confined to his West Bank
compound for two years.
In
November 2012, experts from Switzerland, France and Russia
exhumed his remains and took samples to examine for possible
poisoning. It was prompted by a documentary aired on Al-
Jazeera, that claimed there were traces of polonium in
Arafat’s personal belongings.