Swiss Lab to Analyze Arafat Remains for Poisoning

A Swiss radiology lab said Friday it will test the remains of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for polonium poisoning after receiving the go-ahead from his widow.

The experts from the Lausanne University Hospital Center, which also got the green light from the Palestinian Authority, will travel to the West Bank to take samples from the body, a spokesman for the lab said.

The probe was requested by the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas after a media investigation found elevated levels of polonium, a radioactive substance, on some of Arafat's belongings.

Arafat's widow, Suha Arafat, and their daughter filed a lawsuit on July 31 in France over the radioactive poisoning claims. They lodged the complaint for murder against persons unknown in France because Arafat died at a military hospital near Paris in 2004.