Former Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa has called for an international investigation into the death of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat after Al Jazeera English reported on Tuesday evening that a months-long investigation found traces of a radioactive substance on his belongings.
Moussa said over Twitter that he supported the Palestinian call for an international investigation, adding, “Yasser Arafat died under mysterious circumstances that shouldn’t have been met with silence. Palestinians should raise this case, so that Arafat's blood was not spilled in vain.”
Arafat died in a French hospital in 2004 after a sudden illness that baffled his doctors and surprised the public. Many Palestinians have long held that he was poisoned.
State-run MENA news agency reported that Yasser Arafat’s widow, Suha, said that she has asked the Palestinian Authority to exhume her husband’s body from its resting place in Ramallah so that tests can be run on his remains.
Ms. Arafat said that the truth about Arafat’s death must be revealed to the Arab and Muslim world, pointing out that doctors who treated him during his final days did not determine the cause of death and refused to disclose details about his condition.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that he sees no reason why Arafat’s body should not be exhumed. His spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement that Abbas instructed a Palestinian Authority commission to employ international and Arab scientists to determine the cause of Arafat’s death.
