A Swiss forensic team that carried out an investigation into the 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for possible poisoning have submitted their results to the Palestinian Authority without disclosing the findings.
Palestinian official Tawfik Tirawi confirmed that the report was received on Tuesday in Geneva. He said the results will be studied before they are made public.
Around 60 samples were taken from the remains of the late Palestinian leader after he was exhumed from Ramallah in November last year for a probe into whether he was poisoned by polonium. The samples were divided between Swiss, Russian and French investigators carrying out a probe at the request of Arafat’s widow Suha.
The Russian team handed in their report on November 2 and the French team is also expected to submit their findings soon.
Arafat died at a French hospital on November 11, 2004 at the age of 75 but the cause of death has never been determined and remains controversial.
No autopsy was carried out at the time, in line with his widow’s request, something which has hampered efforts to determine the cause of his death.
In July 2012 a Swiss lab, who were mandated by the Al Jazeera news network, announced that they had found «surprisingly» high levels of polonium-210 in Arafat’s belongings given to his wife by the military hospital in Paris where he died.
Polonium disintegrates rapidly, and experts have cautioned that too much time may have passed to reach a conclusive result.