Arafat’s widow asks French court to probe poison claim

THE widow of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, left, is to launch a court action in France in a bid to establish whether poisoning led to his death.

Recent reports suggested that Mr Arafat may have been poisoned with radioactive polonium-210. He died in November 2004 of an unknown cause.

“Mrs Arafat hopes that the authorities will be able to establish the exact circumstances of his death and uncover the truth, so that justice can be done,” lawyer Pierre-Olivier Sud said yesterday.

The exact nature of the legal complaint by Mr Arafat’s widow, Suha, 48 – who lives in Malta and France – is to be presented before the end of this month.

The Palestinian Authority has agreed to her request to exhume her husband’s body from a mausoleum in the West Bank city of Ramallah for an autopsy.