Swiss scientists say Yasser Arafat had consumed lethal polonium

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat ingested lethal radioactive polonium before his death nine years ago, and it could not have been by accident, Swiss scientists say.

The Swiss lab examined Arafat’s remains and his underclothes and a travel bag that he had with him in the days before his death in a Paris hospital and found that the polonium and lead amounts could not be naturally occurring.

The timeframe of his illness and death were also consistent with polonium poisoning, they said.

“You don’t accidentally or voluntarily absorb a source of polonium it’s not something that appears in the environment like that,” said Patrice Mangin, director of the laboratory.

He said he could not say unequivocally what killed Arafat as the biological samples obtained just last year were far too degraded.

Palestinian officials have alleged from the start that Israel poisoned Arafat, a claim Israel denies.