Scientific and medical experts rule out possibility that Palestinian leader was poisoned amid reports of high levels of polonium-210

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died of natural causes, French investigators have concluded. The team of scientific and medical experts found his death in 2004 was due to "old age following a generalised infection", ruling out allegations he was poisoned, it was reported on Tuesday.

Swiss scientists had previously reported "unexpectedly high activity" of radioactive polonium-210 in Arafat's body and personal effects, including his clothing, leading to accusations that he was assassinated.

On Tuesday, it was reported that the French investigators had ruled out poisoning in their report but that traces of polonium had been found.

A source told Reuters: "The results of the analyses allow us to conclude that the death was not the result of poisoning."

The information contradicts reports last month that the Swiss team thought it was likely Arafat had been poisoned after finding polonium levels up to 18 times higher than expected. However, the Swiss stopped short of categorically stating the radioactive substance had killed him.

Arafat's widow, Suha, said on Tuesday night that she was shocked by the contradictory conclusions of the Swiss and French teams who had examined the same samples from the body.

However, she insisted that both teams had reported higher than normal levels of polonium-210 and lead-210 in the samples.

"There is a doubt and that doubt is, did the poison in the body contaminate the outside environment, which is the conclusion of the French team? Or did something in the outside environment contaminate the body?" she told a press conference in Paris.

"Now I have to trust in justice and science and hope the experts manage to reach some conclusion."

She added: "I am shocked by the contradictions from the most celebrated experts in Europe."

Her lawyer, Pierre Oliver Sur, told journalists he and his team had examined both Swiss and French reports and compared the figures they contained. In some samples, the Swiss found more radioactive contamination than the French and in others the French found more contamination.

"Faced with experts with divergent conclusions ... we will continue the debate. It's like two sides of the same coin," he said.

"What we are looking for is a scientific certainty and that is what we will keep looking for."

He said he had not seen any report from the Russian experts, the third team to have examined the samples.

"We are starting from the same point. The figures are different, but they have arrived at the same conclusion: there is radioactive polonium and radioactive lead. This is a constant."

After Arafat's death in November 2004 at the age of 75 in a French hospital, doctors said he had succumbed to a stroke caused by a blood disorder. However, doctors in Paris said they could not establish the cause of the disorder.

In July last year, Suha Arafat filed a civil suit in a court in Nanterre against person or persons unknown for murder. An investigating judge ordered a murder inquiry the following month.

Arafat's body, buried in Ramallah, was exhumed last year so that separate teams of French, Swiss and Russian investigators could collect samples from his body and investigate them independently.

Palestinians have accused Israel of involvement in Arafat's death, but the Israeli authorities have denied the accusation, describing it as "unreasonable and unsupported by facts".

On Tuesday, Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation executive body, said she could not comment on a report she had not seen, but she was still convinced Arafat had died as a result of foul play. "I am certain that it was not death by natural causes," she said.

Yigal Palmor, spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, said the French results "come as no surprise, and their conclusion is only logical". The French scientists were the only credible and independent team to examine samples taken from Arafat's exhumed corpse, he added, pointing out that the Swiss scientists were commissioned by Arafat's widow, and the Russians by the Palestinian Authority.

"Nevertheless, some people will not look at the evidence and will keep on stirring this. Like all successful soap operas, it will not end as long as there is public demand for more," he said.