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France Opens Homicide Inquiry in Arafat’s Death France Opens Homicide Inquiry in Arafat’s Death
(35 minutes later)
A French court will open a homicide investigation into the 2004 death of the former Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, French news media reported Tuesday. Mr. Arafat’s widow, Suha, petitioned French authorities to investigate last month after findings by a Swiss laboratory suggested that Mr. Arafat may have been exposed to polonium 210, the same radioactive isotope used to poison a dissident Russian former spy in London in 2006. A French court will open a homicide investigation into the 2004 death of the former Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, left, French news media reported Tuesday. Mr. Arafat’s widow, Suha, petitioned French authorities to investigate last month after findings by a Swiss laboratory suggested that Mr. Arafat may have been exposed to polonium 210, the same radioactive isotope used to poison a dissident Russian former spy in London in 2006. Mr. Arafat died in a French military hospital on Nov. 11, 2004, after an infection that was never identified, according to medical records. There have long been suggestions, however unspecific, that he may have been the victim of foul play. The Palestinian Authority, which has agreed to exhume the body for analysis, welcomed the French decision, Saeb Erekat, an aide to the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, told Agence France-Presse.
Mr. Arafat died in a French military hospital on Nov. 11, 2004, after an infection that was never identified, according to medical records. There have long been suggestions, however unspecific, that he may have been the victim of foul play. The Palestinian Authority, which has agreed to exhume the body for analysis, welcomed the French decision, Saeb Erekat, an aide to the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, told Agence France-Presse.