Cause of death undetermined. Arafat
Photo: AFP
PA: Arafat’s death remains mystery
Palestinian PM Qureia says investigation into death of late Palestinian leader fails to determine cause of death
The official investigation into the death of Yasser Arafat has failed to determine what killed the longtime Palestinian leader, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said Wednesday.
Arafat died in a French hospital on November 11, 2004, after a two-week illness that saw a sudden rapid decline in his health, and the cause of death has remained a mystery. His wife, Suha, refused an autopsy.
Qureia said the special ministerial committee formed to investigate the death would publish its results, along with a report by the French doctors who treated Arafat, later Wednesday.
"French and Palestinian doctors who treated the martyred brother found that medicine could not find the disease which infected Arafat, neither viruses, nor germs, nor AIDS, nor bacteria,” Qureia said.
He said the file “Will remain open because doctors in the future might be able to discover the reason for the death."
Since Arafat’s death, rumors have swirled that Arafat died either from AIDS or was somehow poisoned by Israel - an allegation Israel categorically rejects. Arafat’s medical records were leaked to reporters last month. An investigation of these records by independent doctors also turned up inconclusive.
The records showed that Arafat died of a massive stroke after suffering intestinal inflammation, jaundice and a blood condition. But the records were inconclusive about the causes of the blood condition, known as disseminated intravascular coagulation, or DIC. The condition has numerous causes ranging from infections to colitis to liver disease.
