Calls for Arafat ‘killing’ probe after Swiss poison report

Palestinian officials demanded a global probe into the ‘killing’ of Yasser Arafat on Thursday, a day after it emerged that Swiss forensic tests showed he probably died from polonium poisoning.

With the scientific analysis purportedly showing how the Palestinian leader had died mysteriously, a senior figure in the Palestine Liberation Organisation called for an international inquiry to determine who was behind it.
‘The (test) results proved Arafat was poisoned by polonium, and this substance is owned by states, not people, meaning that the crime was committed by a state,’ said Wasel Abu Yusef of the PLO’s executive committee.

‘Just as a committee was formed to investigate the killing of (slain Lebanese prime minister) Rafiq Hariri, there must be a international committee to investigate the killing of president Arafat.’
His remarks came a day after Al-Jazeera published a report by Swiss scientists that said the results of tests on Arafat’s remains ‘moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210’.
Arafat died in France on November 11, 2004 at the age of 75, but doctors were unable to specify the cause of death. No autopsy was carried out at the time, in line with his widow Suha’s request.
Tawfiq Tirawi, head of the Palestinian committee for investigating Arafat’s death, was to hold a news conference on Friday morning to discuss the Swiss findings, officials said.
Meanwhile in Lausanne, the Swiss team which carried out the analysis was preparing to hold its own press conference at 1245 GMT to expound on their report.
Patrice Mangin and Francois Bochud ‘will answer questions linked to the expert report handed Tuesday to representatives for Mrs Suha Arafat and the Palestinian National Authority,’ a statement said.
On Thursday a top aide to former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, who was in power when Arafat died, insisted the premier had done everything to prevent any harm to the Palestinian leader.
‘Ariel Sharon insisted that everything be done to ensure that Arafat, who was at the time living inside his besieged Muqataa compound, was not killed by our soldiers,’ Raanan Gissin said.