Radiation poisoningArafat died of natural causes, not radiation poisoning: Russian investigators
A team of Russian physicians and scientists investigating the 11 November 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has concluded that his death was not caused by radiation poisoning. The conclusions of the Russian team are a blow to the Palestinian leadership, which, since 2004, has accused Israel of being behind Arafat’s death. The Russian team’s findings follow the findings of two other scientific investigative teams: a Swiss medical team, funded by Arafat’s widow, concluded that the radiation poisoning of Arafat could not be ruled out. The French scientific team, appointed by a French judge, concluded that the levels of polonium-210 in Arafat’s personal effects, and the complete absence of the radioactive isotope in his body tissues, made it impossible for Arafat to have been poisoned by polonium. The Russian team, hired by the Palestinian authority, reached the same conclusion the French team did. “It was a natural death; there was no impact of radiation,” Vladimir Uiba, the head of the Russian Federal Medical and Biological Agency, said.
A team of Russian physicians and scientists investigating the 11 November 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has concluded that his death was not caused by radiation poisoning.
The Russian team’s findings follow the findings of two other scientific investigative teams, one Swiss and the other French. The French and Swiss teams both reported elevated levels of polonium-210 in Arafat’s personal effects, but not in his body tissues, but each team reached different conclusions:
· The Swiss investigative team was ambiguous in its conclusions, saying that it could not be determined definitively that Arafat died of radiation poisoning, but that such poisoning could not be ruled out. Thus, a member of the Swiss team, professor François Bochud, the director of the Institut de radiophysique appliquée de Lausanne, told Figaro: “On ne peut pas affirmer que le polonium a été la source de la mort d’Arafat, mais on ne peut pas l’exclure,” allowing different parties to read different meanings into the Swiss team’s conclusions.
· The French investigators agreed with the Swiss team that some of the personal effects Arafat left behind showed somewhat higher levels of polomium-210, but said the polonium was “of natural environmental origin.” They said that two facts made it impossible for Arafat to have been killed by radiation poisoning: the levels of polonium in these effects (a comb, a hair brush, and some undergarments) were too low, and the complete absence of polonium in tissues harvested from his body after his body was exhumed.
The Russian scientific team agrees with the French team that it is not possible that Arafat died as a result of polonium-210.
The Russian team’s conclusions are an especially heavy blow to the Palestinian leadership which, since 2004, has insisted that Arafat was killed by the Israeli Mossad.
Arafat died in a French hospital in November 2004. In July 2012, his widow, Suha Arafat filed a civil suit in a court in Nanterre, France, against person or persons unknown for murdering her husband. A French investigating judge ordered a murder inquiry the following month.
In fact, there were three independent inquiries. The French judge instructed a French scientific team to examine Suha’s allegations. Suha herself, using funds left for her by Arafat, hired the Swiss medical team to conduct an independent inquire. The Palestinian Authority decided they wanted their own scientific team to look into the matter, and hired the Russian scientists.
To facilitate the investigation, the Palestinian Authority allowed Arafat’s body to be exhumed and body tissues taken from it. The tissue samples were given to three separate medical teams — French, Swiss, and Russian — so could study the samples independently (for an early report on the work of the Russian team, see “No proof Yasser Arafat was killed by radioactive poisoning: scientists,” HSNW, 16 October 2013; for the conclusions of the French team, see “Yasser Arafat was not poisoned: French investigators,” HSNW, 5 December 2013).
CBS News reports that Vladimir Uiba, the head of the Russian Federal Medical and Biological Agency, said Thursday that Arafat died of natural causes and the agency had no plans to conduct further tests.
“It was a natural death; there was no impact of radiation,” Uiba said.
The Interfax news agency quoted Uiba in October as saying that Arafat “could not have been poisoned by polonium” and that “traces of such a substance were not found.”
Dr. Abdullah Bashir, the head of the Palestinian medical committee investigating Arafat’s death, said they were studying the Russian and Swiss reports.
“When we finish we are going to announce the results,” Bashir said in a telephone interview with AP from Amman, Jordan.
CBS News notes that polonium occurs naturally in very low concentrations in the Earth’s crust and also is produced artificially in nuclear reactors. There are also tiny, generally undetectable amounts of polonium in humans.
The Palestinian ambassador to Russia, Fayed Mustafa, was quoted by state RIA Novosti news agency to say that the Palestinian authorities respect the Russian experts’ conclusions but believed it was necessary to continue the investigation into Arafat’s death.
Uiba said, however, that his agency has not received any Palestinian request for additional studies.
In 2006, two Russian agents used polonium-210 to poison ex-KGB officer – and fierce Putin critic — Alexander Litvinenko. The two had dinner with him in a posh London restaurant, and when he left the table to go the men’s room, they laced his tea with the radioactive isotope.
Russia has refused to extradite the two agents to stand trial in Britain.
