The Palestinian president died in Paris in 2004, and the Palestinian government in Ramallah demanded France send it the results of a probe launched there over a year ago as soon as possible.
"We say that Israel is the one and only suspect in the case of Yasser Arafat's assassination, and we will continue to carry out a thorough investigation to find out and confirm all the details and all elements of the case," said Tawfiq Tirawi, the head of the Palestinian Authority's inquiry into the death.
Tirawi said Palestinian investigators had studied the findings of Swiss scientists released this week which "moderately" supported the notion that Arafat had been poisoned.
"This is the crime of the 21st century," Tirawi said. "The fundamental (goal) is to find out who is behind the liquidation of Yasser Arafat."
Since Arafat's death, Palestinian society has long given currency to the rumor that he was murdered, with Israel the party most often blamed. But there has never been any proof.
Arafat died in France on November 11, 2004 at the age of 75 after falling sick a month earlier, but doctors were unable to specify the cause of death and no post-mortem was carried out at the time.
Meanwhile, a Russian report quoted by Palestinian investigators on Friday said there was insufficient evidence to support the theory that Yasser Arafat died in 2004 by polonium poisoning, according to Reuters.
The findings were far weaker than those of a Swiss laboratory announced with fanfare on Wednesday by Arafat's widow and Qatar-based al-Jazeera television.
"The outcome of the comprehensive report on the levels of Polonium-210 and the development of his illness does not give sufficient evidence to support the decision that Polonium-210 caused acute radiation syndrome leading to death," said Dr. Abdullah Bashir, quoting the conclusions of the Russian report.
But Dr. Bashir said that both the Swiss and Russian reports found "large amounts" of the radioactive isotope in his remains.
MNA
END
Your Comment