RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, Nov 6 AFP - Swiss scientists have concluded that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat probably died from polonium poisoning.
The results of tests on Arafat's remains "moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210," said the 108-page analysis posted on the website of Qatar-based satellite broadcaster Al Jazeera on Wednesday.
Arafat died under mysterious circumstances at a French military hospital on November 11, 2004, a month after falling ill at his Israeli-besieged West Bank compound. Doctors were unable to specify the cause of death. No autopsy was carried out at the time, in line with his widow's request.
Last year, Switzerland's Institute of Radiation Physics discovered traces of polonium-210, a deadly radioactive isotope, on some of Arafat's belongings, after conducting tests at the request of his widow, Suha.
Arafat's remains in the West Bank were subsequently exhumed in November 2012, and soil and bone samples taken, partly to investigate whether he had been poisoned - a suspicion that grew after the assassination of Russian ex-spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
"New toxicological and radio-toxicological investigations were performed, demonstrating unexpectedly high levels of polonium-210 and lead-210 activity in many of the analysed specimens," said the November 5 report penned by 10 Swiss experts.
It added that polonium levels in "bones and soft tissues were up to 20 times larger than references in the literature", firmly ruling out the possibility previously reported in some media that cigarette smoke had caused greater than normal polonium levels among Arafat's personal effects.
Suha said in an interview with Al Jazeera that the poisoning amounted to "the assassination of a great leader" and a "political crime".
"I don't know who did it, but it's terrible," she said.
"It's so sad, but it's a shock. It's a shock for myself, it's a shock for my daughter ... an elected president to be killed in this very cowardly way. People could not kill him on the battlefield."
Palestinian officials have long accused Israel of poisoning Arafat, a claim Israel has denied.
Israel's foreign ministry on Wednesday scoffed at the notion that Arafat had been poisoned, suggesting that the investigation was not impartial.
"This is a soap opera - the soap opera where Suha fights Arafat's successors - episode one hundred and something," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP.
"The two (examining) teams have been commissioned by interested parties, they are not independent teams.
"At any rate, it is no concern of Israel because we have nothing to do with it," Palmor said.
The Palestinian official in charge of the investigation into Arafat's death, Tawfiq Tirawi, said on Tuesday that he had received the findings of the Swiss laboratory, although he declined to disclose them.
Official Palestinian news agency WAFA said that a separate Russian team appointed by the Palestinian Authority also handed in its report on November 2.
About 60 samples were taken from the remains of the late Palestinian leader in November last year for the probe into whether he had been poisoned by polonium.
The samples were divided between the Swiss and Russian investigators, and a French team carrying out an investigation at Suha Arafat's request.
In an October report published by The Lancet medical journal, eight scientists working at the Institute of Radiation Physics and University Centre of Legal Medicine in Lausanne confirmed they found traces of polonium in separate tests on clothing used by Arafat, which they said "support the possibility" he was poisoned.
Derek Hill, a professor in radiological science at University College London who was not involved in the investigation, told AP the levels of polonium-210 cited in the report seem "way above normal".
"I would say it's clearly not overwhelming proof, and there is a risk of contamination (of the samples), but it is a pretty strong signal," he said. "It seems likely what they're doing is putting a very cautious interpretation of strong data."
He said polonium is "kind of a perfect poison" because it is so hard to detect unless experts look for it using specialised equipment generally found only in government laboratories.
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