Yasser Arafat: 'poisoned with radioactive polonium'.......His wife Suha Arafat said the forensic tests proved that her husband was the victim of a "political assassination"

The widow of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has claimed forensic tests on his corpse show that he was poisoned to death with radioactive polonium.

Suha Arafat said the tests proved that her husband was the victim of a "political assassination". The radioactive substance is the same as that which killed the Russian spy Alexander Litvinkenko in 2006.

"It's scientifically proved that he didn't die a natural death and we have scientific proof that this man was killed," she said, as reported by Sky News.

Mr Arafat died at a military hospital in Paris eight years ago. A post mortem at the time showed he died from a stroke but doctors could not find the origin of his illness.

Angry: Suha Arafat, widow of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, watches the ceremony after her husband's exhumation last year
REUTERS



In November last year, Mr Arafat's body was exhumed and a team of experts have since been examining samples from his body.

British forensic scientist Professor David Barclay said the findings showed that poisoning was the cause of Mr Arafat's illness.

"In my opinion, it is absolutely certain that the cause of his illness was polonium poisoning," he said. "The levels present in him are sufficient to have caused death."

Mrs Arafat has not blamed any person or country for her husband's death. Israel has long been blamed by Palestinians although its government has denied any role in his death.

#mirror.co.uk