Tirawi denies Swiss delegation in Ramallah

Tawfiq Al-Tirawi, head of the investigation committee probing the death of Palestinian icon and former president Yasser Arafat, has denied media reports that a Swiss medical delegation is due in the city of Ramallah to take samples of Arafat's remains for testing. "No date has  been set for the delegation's visit, though the Palestinian leadership welcomes the Swiss team to examine the remains," he said. Tirawi told Arabstoday: "We were not informed of any official date for the arrival of the Swiss delegation. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed the Palestinian Authority's willingness to cooperate with the medical delegation at any time." Tirawi said, the Swiss delegation was awaiting the lawyer of Suha Al Taweel, the widow of  late president Arafat to begin screening procedures for the remains, especially after informing them of the PA's approval for the move. The Institute of Physics Radiation at the University Medical Center in Lausanne announced Friday that it had plans to start laboratory testing Arafat's remains after it received the approval of his widow Suha. The Institute received in early August a letter from the PA asking it to conduct the tests and requested the approval of the widow of the late Palestinian leader. On Thursday Marc Bonan, Suha Arafat's lawyer in Geneva declared on Swiss radio and television that the widow of the late Palestinian leader "wanted this investigation and she is the one pushing for it, so we will head to Ramallah. We should be able to get there next month." "It's a matter of days," said a statement from the Institute, adding that experts will initially carry a “reconnaissance mission" to meet with representatives of the Palestinian Authority and look at the development of the shrine, and the technological and scientific equipment in place. The goal of the tests that are supposed to be in the second task, if so is decided, will take samples of the remains in order to search for the possibility of the existence of traces of highly toxic radioactive polonium. A spokesperson added: "Time is running out, we can say it's a matter of weeks rather than months because the possibility of detecting traces of polonium decline by half every 138 days." The Palestinian leader died on 11 November 2004 in Percy military hospital near Paris. On July 31, Suha Arafat in France filed a lawsuit against unknown defendants for the murder of her husband. The hypothesis of death by poison was raised again after the Al-Jazeera news network on July 3 displayed a documentary stating that the Lausanne centre conducted an analysis of biological samples taken from some personal belongings of Arafat that his widow received from the military hospital in Percy, showing the existence of "an abnormal amount of polonium.” On August 8, Tawfiq Al Tirawi, member a Committee formed by President Abbas to follow up the issue of Arafat's death announced "the PA will provide any required guarantees for the Swiss Institute, and the authorities have contacted Suha Arafat who has agreed to extract parts of the remains of Arafat to be tested" .Polonium is a radioactive substance that was used in 2006 in London to poison former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who had become an opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.