Israel & Palestijnen Blog: Arafat niet vergiftigd volgens 2 van 3 onderzoeken

zaterdag 28 december 2013

Arafat niet vergiftigd volgens 2 van 3 onderzoeken

Liefst drie onderzoeksteams hebben zich gebogen over de resten van Yasser Arafat en zijn spullen, negen jaar na zijn dood, om proberen vast te stellen of hij vergiftigd werd of aan iets anders overleed. Zijn weduwe, van wie hij de laatste jaren gescheiden leefde, weigerde destijds een autopsie maar beweert nu dat hij vergiftigd was.

Zowel de Russen als de Fransen vonden geen aanwijzingen voor vergiftiging; de Zwitsers meenden wel dat polonium vergiftiging zijn dood kan hebben veroorzaakt.

Wouter

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Report: Russian experts find Arafat died of natural causes

http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Report-Russian-experts-find-Arafat-died-of-natural-causes-336211

By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS

12/26/2013 11:48

Amid conflicting reports of the Palestinian leader's cause of death, the latest discovery negates Swiss findings, confirms French report.

Former Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat surrounded by doctors from Tunis, Egypt and Jordan Photo: REUTERS/HO/Palestinian Authority/Hussein Hussein

MOSCOW - Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died of natural causes, not radiation poisoning, the head of a Russian state forensics agency that tested samples taken from his body said on Thursday, according to the Interfax news agency.

The Russian finding was in line with an assessment by French scientists who said earlier this month that Arafat, who died in 2004, had not been killed with radioactive polonium.

Related:

· Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was murdered with polonium, widow says

· French forensic experts find Arafat did not die of poisoning, source says

"Yasser Arafat died not from the effects of radiation but of natural causes," Vladimir Uiba, head of the Federal Medico-Biological Agency (FMBA), was quoted as saying by Interfax.

Arafat, who signed the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords with Israel but then led an uprising in 2000, died at 75 in a French hospital four weeks after falling ill following a meal in his Ramallah compound surrounded by Israeli tanks.

The official cause of death was a massive stroke, but French doctors said at the time they were unable to determine the origin of his illness. No autopsy was carried out.

Swiss forensic experts said last month that their tests of samples taken from Arafat's body were consistent with polonium poisoning, while not absolute proof of the cause of death.

Samples were taken from Arafat's body in November 2012 by Swiss, French and Russian experts after an al Jazeera documentary said his clothes showed high amounts of polonium.

Many Palestinians have long believed Israel killed him - a charge Israel flatly denies - but an official Palestinian Authority investigation headed by Tawfiq Tirawi has yet to produce any evidence.

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