PARIS - French prosecutors opened a murder inquiry into the death of Yasser Arafat on Tuesday, his widow's lawyer said, after she and a TV investigation raised new questions about whether the Palestinian leader was poisoned.
Many in the Arab world have long suspected that Arafat was poisoned, and a Swiss lab's recent finding of elevated levels of polonium-210 - a rare and highly lethal radioactive substance - on Arafat's clothing has fed those claims.
However, the Institute of Radiation Physics said its findings were inconclusive and that only exhuming Arafat's remains could bring possible clarity. Palestinian officials have waffled on that matter - initially approving the exhumation and then saying the matter needed more study - only further fueling suspicions.
Arafat died at age 75 in a French military hospital outside Paris in 2004 of what doctors have said was a massive stroke.
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The Swiss lab's findings were first broadcast by Al-Jazeera, which approached the lab on behalf of Arafat's widow, Suha. She provided his clothing and other belongings.
After the results were released, Suha Arafat filed a complaint asking for a murder investigation. Her lawyer, Pierre-Olivier Sur, confirmed on Tuesday that the prosecutor's office in Nanterre, the seat of the district where the military hospital is, has agreed to take up the matter.
He said experts from the Swiss lab would travel to the West Bank in the next few weeks to take samples from Arafat's remains - even though the matter of his exhumation is still in limbo.
