Russia denies issuing conclusions over Arafat's death

Russian agency involved in studying the remains of Yasser Arafat has denied issuing any conclusions about the death of the Palestinian leader.

MOSCOW // The Russian agency involved in studying the remains of Yasser Arafat yesterday denied issuing any conclusions about the death of the Palestinian leader.

Russia’s Federal Medical-Biological Agency’s denial came after a report cited its chief as saying he could not have died from polonium poisoning.

The agency was one of three international institutes involved in exhuming Arafat’s remains in November 2012.

Interfax earlier quoted the agency chief, Vladimir Uiba, as saying he doubted a report published in The Lancet at the weekend saying Swiss radiation experts had found traces of polonium on Arafat’s clothing.

The Swiss team said its findings “support the possibility” Arafat, who died in November 2004, was poisoned.

“He could not have been poisoned by polonium,” Mr Uiba was quoted as saying by Interfax. “The Russian experts who conducted the investigation did not find traces of this substance.”

However, the agency quickly denied that Uiba had ever issued such a statement.

“We have not publicised any official results of our forensic review,” a spokesman said.

“Neither have we publicly confirmed nor denied media reports about there being or not being polonium in Arafat’s remains.”

The deputy editor of Interfax’s political news section stood by the story.

“The correspondent and I sat down with Uiba for an interview and this is what he said,” said the deputy editor, who asked not to be named.

“If the agency press service later decided to issue that kind of statement, then it will rest on their conscience.”

A foreign ministry source said Russia had no right to publicise the forensic review’s conclusions because the study was commissioned by the Palestinian leadership.

“Our position on announcing the results of Yasser Arafat’s exhumation remains the same: only the Palestinian authorities can release this information,” the source said.

Speculation has surrounded Arafat’s death ever since a quick deterioration of his health saw him pass away at a military hospital near Paris in November 2004 at 75.

French doctors were unable to say what killed the Palestinians’ first democratically elected president and an autopsy was never performed, at his widow’s request.

But many Palestinians believed he was poisoned by Israel.

* Agence France-Presse