Russian experts to join Swiss and French investigators exhuming Yasser Arafat’s remains

The Palestinian president says Russian experts will join a team of Swiss and French investigators in exhuming the remains of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat later this month.

Mahmoud Abbas says Sunday he hopes that thanks to the Russian involvement, “new facts will arise or be known about the causes of death.”

Arafat’s death in a French hospital in November 2004 has remained a mystery for many. While the immediate cause was a stroke, the underlying source of an illness he suffered in his final weeks has never been clear. That led to conspiracy theories that he had cancer, AIDS or was poisoned.

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.