RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian president cleared the way Wednesday for a possible autopsy on Yasser Arafat’s remains, following a request from his widow after a Swiss lab said it found elevated levels of a lethal radioactive isotope on the longtime Palestinian leader’s belongings.
The developments have reignited a storm of speculation over what killed Arafat, who died Nov. 11, 2004, at the age of 75 in a military hospital outside Paris after decades of fighting with Israel.
Arafat’s widow, Suha, did not explain why she waited nearly eight years to have the belongings, including a toothbrush and a fur hat, tested. French doctors said at the time that Arafat died of a massive brain hemorrhage — weeks after he fell violently ill at his West Bank compound.
The uncertainty prompted many in the Arab world to allege he was killed by Israel, which viewed him as an obstacle to a peace treaty. Israeli officials have vociferously denied any foul play.
Experts found what Francois Bochud, who heads the Institute of Radiation Physics in Lausanne, Switzerland, characterized as “very small” quantities of polonium, an isotope that is naturally present in the environment. But there were higher quantities of polonium in, for example, a urine stain on underwear worn by Arafat and a blood stain on hospital clothing than on belongings he hadn’t used, such as new and unworn socks stored in the same bag.
Polonium is best known for causing the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a one-time KGB agent turned critic of the Russian government, in London in 2006. Litvinenko ingested tea laced with the substance.
