Site last updated: Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Log In

Reset Password
MENU
Butler County's great daily newspaper

Arafat to be exhumed in November

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Investigators from France will exhume Yasser Arafat’s remains next month to try to find out how the Palestinian leader died, a French official said Tuesday.

The official said the team from France will arrive sometime between Nov. 24 and Nov. 26 in the West bank city of Ramallah.

Palestinian authorities confirmed the timetable and said a separate Swiss investigative team would also arrive in Ramallah at the same time. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

However, Darcy Christen, a spokeswoman for Switzerland’s Institute of Radiation Physics that is expected to conduct the autopsy for the Swiss team, said no date has been confirmed yet.

The push to re-examine circumstances surrounding Arafat’s November 2004 death came after a Swiss lab recently discovered traces of polonium-210, a deadly radioactive isotope, on clothes said to be his.

The discovery revived suspicions of poisoning. The immediate cause of Arafat’s death was a stroke, but the underlying source of an illness he suffered in his final weeks has never been clear.

More in International News

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

* indicates required
TODAY'S PHOTOS