LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Tests run by the Institute of Radiation Physics at the University Hospitals (CHUV) in Lausanne on personal items belonging to deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had a level that was “significant, of polonium” director François Bochud told Aljazeera news service. His remarks are made in a documentary made by the news agency.
“I can confirm to you that we measured an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported polonium-210 in the belongings of Mr Arafat that contained stains of biological fluids” says Bochud. Polonium is a rare, highly radioactive element and this kind is found only in nuclear reactors.
Bochud notes that the only way to be sure is to exhume Arafat’s remains and test them. The Palestinian leader died in Paris 12 October 2004 after suffering from an illness that several doctors were never able to pinpoint.
Russian spy Alexandre Livtenko, who died in London in 2006, was famously poisoned with polonium and the tests done in Lausanne show an eerie similarity in the levels found in the one man’s body and on biological stains from the other man, raising the old question of whether or not Arafat was poisoned and if so, by whom.
