Arafat nephew raises suspicion over death

Yasser Arafat’s nephew said today the lack of a diagnosis, despite extensive tests, into his uncle’s death last month raised suspicions the late-Palestinian leader died of “unnatural” causes.

The comments by Nasser al-Kidwa, after he handed over the 558-page medical dossier to Palestinian officials in Ramallah, were certain to fuel speculation that Arafat was poisoned.

Arafat died in a French hospital on November 11.

Al-Kidwa repeated his statement from last month that the French doctors were unable to rule out the possibility that Arafat had been poisoned, although they said they had not found traces of “any poison known to them”.

“Examinations of X-rays and all imaginable tests … are still with the same results, the inability of reaching a clear diagnosis,” Al-Kidwa said in English at a news conference in Ramallah.

“That is precisely the reason why suspicions are there, because without a reason you cannot escape the other possibility ... that there is unnatural cause for the death,” he added.