The Case Regarding Yasser Arafat's Death in France Closed

French judges have dismissed the complaint regarding the suspicious death of Yasser Arafat, the former president of the Palestinian Authority, and declared the case closed. Arafat, known as 'Abu Ammar', died in 2004 at the age of 75 following a brief illness in a military hospital in France. The French prosecutor's office in Nantes announced on Wednesday, September 2, that the judges handling the complaint found insufficient and unconvincing evidence to prove that Arafat's death was intentional. According to French media, the Nantes prosecutor's office stated that three judges concluded that until solid evidence regarding the 'suspicious' nature of Arafat's death is obtained, his passing should be considered natural. However, according to Palestinian media, despite the case being closed, officials from the Palestinian Authority stated on Thursday, September 3, in the West Bank that they would not cease their investigations. Suha Arafat, Yasser Arafat's wife, also stated that the French judges' decision was 'hasty'. Her complaint was submitted to the court in 2012. Arafat's political aides and Suha Arafat attributed the illness of this Palestinian leader to Israel and formed cases to file complaints against Israel after his death. The investigative committee formed within the Palestinian Authority assisted Suha Arafat in filing her complaint in France. Palestinians claim that Arafat was killed with the toxic substance Polonium-210. Researchers in a laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland confirmed the presence of Polonium-210 at an 'unusual' level in Arafat's clothing and belongings used in the months leading up to his death. However, French and Russian experts rejected the Swiss laboratory's findings. After signing the Oslo peace agreement in September 1993 with then Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, Arafat moved to the Palestinian territories to establish the Palestinian Authority and settled in Ramallah, the political center of the West Bank. With the intensification of the second Palestinian intifada from 2000, Israel accused Arafat and his aides of inciting the uprising, besieging Arafat in the 'Muqata' building and targeting it multiple times. During the siege, Arafat became severely ill and was transferred to the Percy hospital in France in early autumn 2004 due to worsening illness and abdominal pains of unknown cause, but he died after a few weeks. During the siege of the Palestinian leadership building, Israel sent food and 'medicine' to Arafat and his besieged aides; some Palestinians claimed that these materials were also fed to him by one of Arafat's guards. These Palestinians suspected Arafat's trusted guard of being a spy for the Israeli internal security agency. At that time, Ariel Sharon was the Prime Minister of Israel. A year after Arafat's death, Sharon fell into an eight-year coma and died in 2014. In this context, Israel denied involvement in Arafat's 'poisoning', while Russia stated that Arafat's death was due to natural causes, not poisoning.