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Russians To Assist In Arafat Exhumation


Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas says Russian experts will join a team of Swiss and French investigators in exhuming the remains of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat later in November.

Abbas said on November 11 he hopes that thanks to the Russian involvement, "new facts will arise or be known about the causes of death."

Arafat died in a Paris hospital in November 2004.

While the immediate cause was a stroke, the underlying source of an illness he suffered in his final weeks has never been clear.

The new probes come after a Swiss lab discovered traces of a deadly radioactive isotope on clothes said to be Arafat's, sparking new accusations he was poisoned.
Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, and Interfax

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