DHAKA: One of the world’s leading medical journals has supported the possibility that Yasser Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader, was poisoned with the radioactive element polonium 210.

The British ‘The Lancet’ journal has published a peer review of last year’s research by Swiss scientists on Arafat’s personal effects, reports Al Jazeera.

It endorsed their work, which found high levels of the highly radioactive element in blood, urine, and saliva stains on the Palestinian leader’s clothes and toothbrush.

The work of the experts at Lausanne University, Switzerland, was triggered by an Al Jazeera investigation, and also led to Arafat’s body being exhumed in November 2012 for further testing.

In October 2004, Arafat fell ill, suffering from a number of symptoms, including nausea and abdominal pain.

Within a few short weeks, his health became significantly worse, and he was transferred from his base in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, to Percy Hospital in France.

His situation continued to worsen, and he suffered from acute renal failure, and entered into a neurological coma.

By November 4 in 2004, he died of a cerebral haemorrhage, at the age of 75.

Despite several scientific tests, there was no evidence of poison, and the cause of his illness remained unidentified.

BDST: 1608 HRS, OCT 12, 2013
RoR/SRS