Russia: Arafat died of natural causes not radiation poisoning

Russia said yesterday that former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died of natural causes, not radiation poisoning, but the Palestinian ambassador to Moscow said an investigation would continue, Russian news agencies reported.

Samples were taken from Arafat’s body last year by Swiss, French and Russian forensics experts after an al Jazeera documentary said his clothes showed high amounts of deadly polonium 210.

The Swiss said last month that their tests were consistent with polonium poisoning, while not absolute proof of the cause of death. But the Russian finding was in line with that of French scientists who said earlier this month that Arafat had not been killed with polonium.