Yasser Arafat died of natural causes not radiation poisoning, according to Russian forensics experts.<br /><br />They are the latest to give an opinion on the former Palestinian leader’s mysterious death in 2004.<br /><br />His body was exhumed eight years later and samples taken by Swiss, French and Russian scientists. It followed a TV documentary which said Arafat’s clothes showed high amounts of deadly polonium 210.<br /><br />The Swiss said their tests were consistent with polonium poisoning but not absolute proof of the cause of death.<br /><br />France, which had opened a murder inquiry, ultimately agreed with Russia that the <br />75-year-old was not, in fact, killed by polonium.<br /><br />The official cause of death was a stroke but, nearly a decade after Arafat’s funeral, many Palestinians are convinced that Israel killed him – a charge it denies.<br /><br />The latest findings have been branded “politicised” by a Palestinian official who has vowed that the investigation into Arafat’s death will continue.
