A French court has opened a murder inquiry into the death eight years ago of former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, prosecutors said on Tuesday, following claims by his widow that he may have been poisoned.
Arafat died in a Paris military hospital in November 2004, a month after being flown, seriously ill, from his battered headquarters in Ramallah, where he had been effectively confined by Israel for more than two-and-a-half years.
Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat welcomed the inquiry. However, he said the Arab League would also call at the UN for an international investigation into the death of Arafat, who led Palestinians’ campaign to create a state through years of war and peace.
Allegations of foul play have long surrounded Arafat’s demise after French doctors who treated him in his final days said they could not establish the cause of death.
Many Arabs suspect Israel of being behind his decline and the case returned to the headlines last month when a Swiss institute said it had discovered high levels of the radioactive element polonium-210 on Arafat’s clothing supplied by his widow, Suha.
That substance was found to have killed former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
Suha asked a court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre to open a murder investigation following the revelations publicized by the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite TV channel.
However, the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne said that symptoms described in Arafat’s medical reports were not consistent with polonium-210 and conclusions could not be drawn as to whether he had been poisoned.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said he hoped the French inquiry would reveal more on the circumstances of Arafat’s death.
“This does not pertain to us. The complaint lodged by Suha Arafat with the French police does not address Israel or anyone in particular,” he said. “If the French justice system has decided to open an investigation, we hope that it will shed light on this matter.”
Erekat said a Palestinian committee investigating the death would continue its work.
“We welcome the [French] decision,” he said. “We believe our political and medical team is working in parallel [with the French inquiry]. At the same time the Arab League has now formed a committee, which will call for an international investigation through the UN Security Council.”
Arafat was confined by Israel to his compound after a Palestinian uprising and was already in poor health when he collapsed in October 2004. At first Arafat’s aides said he was suffering from influenza, but, looking weak and thin — and telling aides “God willing, I will be back” — he was flown to France where he slipped into a coma and died on Nov. 11.
A former Israeli official denied the allegations.
Dov Weisglass was chief of staff to the Israeli prime minister when Arafat died in 2004. He says Israel had no interest in harming the Palestinian leader at the end of his political career.
Weisglass told Army Radio yesterday that Israel permitted Arafat to seek medical treatment in France so Israel could not be accused of exacerbating his illness.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS