Evidence does not prove poisoning: Russian report

ramallah — A Russian report quoted by Palestinian investigators on Friday said there was insufficient evidence to support the theory that Yasser Arafat died in 2004 by polonium poisoning.

The findings were far weaker than those of a Swiss laboratory announced with fanfare on Wednesday by Arafat’s widow and Qatar-based Al Jazeera television.

Palestinians remained unfazed by the results — which dampen but don’t definitely disprove the possibility of death by poisoning — and officials continue to blame arch foe Israel. “The outcome of the comprehensive report on the levels of Polonium-210 and the development of his illness does not give sufficient evidence to support the decision that Polonium-210 caused acute radiation syndrome leading to death,” said Dr Abdullah Bashir, quoting the conclusions of the Russian report.

But Dr Bashir said that both the Swiss and Russian reports found “large amounts” of the radioactive isotope in his remains. The Russian findings were significantly more cau- tious than Swiss conclusions which said that its tests “moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with Polonium-210”, though the evidence was not conclusive.

Arafat, affectionately known by the nom de guerre Abu Ammar, contracted a sudden and mysterious illness while surrounded by Israeli tanks in his compound in Ramallah.

Palestinians have long blamed Israel for his death — a charge it denies — but a local investigation committee has made little tangible progress in explaining the case.

“Palestinians should stop levelling all these groundless accusations without the slightest proof because enough is enough. We have strictly nothing to do with this and that is all there is to it,” Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told Reuters.

Tawfiq Tirawi, intelligence chief at the time of Arafat’s death and now head of the Palestinian committee, began Friday’s press conference at the compound where Arafat first fell ill with a prayer for what he called “the martyr’s soul”. —