France launches criminal probe into Arafat’s death

French prosecutors on Tuesday launched a criminal investigation into the death of former PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, in the wake of allegations he may have been poisoned.

In July, Al Jazeera reported that an investigation revealed traces of the lethal radioactive element polonium had been found on Arafat’s clothes.

A week later, the late leader’s widow, Suha Arafat, formally requested a French investigation into the Palestinian leader’s 2004 death in a French military hospital. Arafat and Palestinian officials also gave the go-ahead to exhume his body from its Ramallah tomb.

The prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre decided to accept the complaint, also brought on behalf of Arafat’s daughter, and open an investigation.

According to a statement from the family’s French lawyer, Pierre-Olivier Sur, the family’s request was intended to “establish the truth in honor of their husband and father.”

Doubts and accusations of foul play have long surrounded Arafat’s death. French doctors have said he died of a massive stroke and suffered from a blood condition known as disseminated intravascular coagulation. The records were inconclusive about what brought about the condition, which has numerous possible causes.

Two years after Arafat’s death, former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died in London after a mysterious three week illness. A British inquiry found that Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium that was slipped into his tea at a sushi restaurant.

Arafat and Litvinenko shared symptoms such as diarrhea, weight loss and vomiting.