Arafat Belongings Contaminated By Radioactive Element
By Maan
Items belonging to late president Yasser Arafat were found to have been contaminated by a rare and radioactive element, Al Jazeera reported Tuesday.
Arafat, who fell ill while besieged in his compound in Ramallah, eventually passed away in 2004 in a Paris hospital. Mystery surrounded his cause of death.
Now, Al Jazeera says the Swiss Institut de Radiophysique has proof that Arafat’s personal belongings contained abnormal levels of a rare and radioactive element called polonium.
Dr Francois Bochud of the institute was quoted as saying “an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported polonium-210” was found on belongings like Arafat’s toothbrush and iconic kuffiya.
The substance is believed to be the same which killed Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who died after falling ill in 2006 in London, Al Jazeera reported.