Three teams of scientists are trying to determine whether former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned eight years ago.

Arafat’s body was exhumed at the request of his wife, Suha Arafat, who learned that a radioactive substance, polonium-210, may have killed the one-time PLO head.

Suha Arafat refused to permit an autopsy at the time her husband died in a French hospital following a stroke, said to have been caused by a blood disorder, in 2004.  

She then gave some of Yasser Arafat’s personal items, including his toothbrush, underwear and kaffiyeh (Arab headdress), to Al Jazeera television. The network forwarded them to Switzerland for tests, where the Institut de Radiophysique discovered abnormal levels of polonium-210.

The radioactive element is extremely rare, but became widely known after it was used to kill Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.

The Swiss tests were deemed inconclusive, which prompted Suha Arafat to ask the French to open a murder investigation.

Of the three teams testing the remains, one consists of French and Swiss experts hired by Suha Arafat. The other two are made up of Palestinian and Russian experts.

It is expected to take several months before any test results become available.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Can Science Solve Mystery Surrounding Arafat's Death? (by Nina Lamparski, BBC News)

Yasser Arafat Exhumed and Reburied in Six-Hour Night Mission (by Chris McGreal, The Guardian)

Israel Admits to 1988 Assassination of Top Arafat Aide (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)