Palestinian officials say Arafat body will be exhumed Nov 27

PanARMENIAN.Net - The body of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is to be exhumed on Tuesday, Nov 27, Palestinian officials say, according to BBC News.

His body is to undergo tests to find out whether his death in Paris in 2004 was caused by poisoning.

Arafat's medical records say he had a stroke resulting from a blood disorder. But France began a murder inquiry in August after Swiss experts hired by a documentary crew found radioactive polonium-210 on Arafat's personal effects.

His tomb, in Ramallah in the West Bank, was sealed off earlier this month.

Once the body is removed from the tomb inside the stone-clad tomb mausoleum, scientists from France, Switzerland and Russia will each take samples, former Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi told reporters.

Each team will conduct its own independent analysis of the sample, he said, and then body will be reburied the same day with military honors.

Arafat, who led the Palestine Liberation Organization for 35 years and became the first president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, fell violently ill in October 2004 at his compound.

Two weeks later he was flown to a French military hospital in Paris, where he died on 11 November 2004, aged 75.

Many Palestinians continue to believe that Israel poisoned him. Israel has denied any involvement. Others allege that he had AIDS.