RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — West Bank workers have blocked off Yasser Arafat’s grave ahead of the planned exhumation of the Palestinian leader’s remains later this month.
The gravesite was surrounded with a blue tarpaulin and roads leading to the Arafat mausoleum were closed off today.
Palestinian officials say the exhumation will take place in late November. They say the Palestinian Authority insists on privacy and doesn’t want the process observed by media and others. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the exhumation..
Swiss, French and Russian experts are to exhume Arafat’s body to try to clear up some of the mystery surrounding his November 2004 death in France.
A Swiss lab recently discovered traces of a deadly radioactive isotope on clothes said to be Arafat’s, reviving allegations that he was poisoned.
