Swiss scientists exhumed Arafat’s body in late 2012 and found polonium levels 18 times higher than normal in the ribs, pelvis and soil that absorbed bodily fluids.

The scientists’ report took into account the eight years since Arafat’s death - he died in 2004 just four weeks after mysteriously falling ill following a meal - and said the results "moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210.”

Arafat’s widow, Suha Arafat, called the report evidence her 75-year-old healthy husband was murdered. She told Al-Jazeera, which obtained the report, “I remember how Yasser was shrinking at the hospital, how in his eyes there were a lot of questions. Death is a fate in life, it is everybody's fate, but when it's poison it's terrible. We are mourning him again now."

In July 2012, experts at Lausanne University, Switzerland, said they had evidence Arafat might have been poisoned with polonium.

The investigation into Arafat’s mysterious death led to the exhumation of his body in November 2012 for further testing.

The decision to exhume Arafat’s body was made after French prosecutors opened a murder probe into his death in August 2012 following the discovery of high levels of polonium on his personal belongings.

Arafat died in 2004 at the age of 75 in a Paris military hospital.

NJF/NJF