Arafat to be exhumed Tuesday for poison tests
Palestinian officials said on Saturday they would exhume the body of their leader Yasser Arafat next week to see if Israel poison-ed him with a Russian-produced radioactive isotope.
The controversial annou-ncement came as a group of international experts arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah to take samples of the remains of the iconic leader’s bones and clothing for further study in European labs.
“The tomb will be opened on (Tuesday) and experts will take samples the same day within a matter of a few hours,” Tawfiq Tirawi told reporters in Ramallah.
He said a reburial ceremony would be held with full military honours later the same day in Arafat’s mausoleum at the heart of his Muqataa headquarters. Family members had earlier indicated the exhumation would probably go ahead on Monday. He did not explain the delay while stressing the procedure was painful but necessary to establish the truth of allegations that Israel may have poisoned the iconic Palestinian leader.
“November 27 will be one of the most painful days of my life for personal reasons as well as patriotic, political and religious ones,” the Palestinian inquiry chief said. “But it is necessary in order to get to the painful truth behind Yasser Arafat’s death.”
Mr Tirawi added that members of his commission remained convinced that Israel had used the radioactive element polonium to kill Arafat — the same poison used to assassinate Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. “We remain convinced that the Israelis assassinated President Arafat, and... we have evidence...” he said.
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