Arafat didn't die of radioactive polonium: experts

Swiss and Russian experts who participated in exhuming and applying tests on the remains of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat ruled out in their report that radioactive polonium caused his death in 2004, local sources said Thursday.

However, the report, which the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) received, did not discount the possibility that Arafat was intoxicated with a different poisonous material, the sources told Xinhua.

Tawfiq Al-Tirrawi, head of the Palestinian committee investigating Arafat's death, declined to comment on the information obtained by Xinhua, but said a press conference would be held soon to reveal the results of the report.

In November, Swiss, Russian and French experts took samples from Arafat's remains for more tests after an investigative media report found out that Arafat's personal belongings bore traces of polonium-210.

The report was broadcast by the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television network, and the team of the documentary makers used a Swiss lab to examine Arafat's clothes, toothbrush and bedcovers after getting these from his widow.

Arafat died at a French military hospital in 2004 from an undisclosed or unknown condition.

At the time, Palestinian officials hinted that Israel was behind the death of Arafat after it prevented him from leaving his Ramallah headquarters for two years.