Palestinian Sources: Arafat Remains Reburied after Samples Taken

The remains of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were reburied on Tuesday after samples were taken to be tested for signs he was poisoned, Palestinian sources said.

"The operation is finished, the tomb has been resealed and the samples have been given to the French, Swiss and Russian experts," officials from the Palestinian commission investigating Arafat's death told Agence France Presse.

Palestinian officials had originally planned a military ceremony to accompany the reburial of the remains after their exhumation.

But sources said the samples were removed from the remains directly from the grave, so there was no need to rebury them in a new ceremony.

"The samples were taken from Arafat's remains from inside the grave and the samples were then transferred to the mosque," a Palestinian source said, referring to a building adjacent to the Muqataa presidential complex in Ramallah, from which Arafat once ruled.

The removal of the samples was conducted by a Palestinian doctor in the presence of experts from Switzerland, Russia and France. Palestinian officials were expected to give a press conference to discuss the process at 1200 GMT.

The samples being collected are to be tested for the radioactive substance polonium as part of a new investigation into whether Arafat was poisoned, which comes eight years after his 2004 death in a French hospital.

The probe was prompted by an investigation carried out by the Al-Jazeera news channel, which commissioned a Swiss lab to test personal effects belonging to the late leader that were given to them by his wife Suha.

The tests revealed the presence of the toxic substance polonium, and prompted calls for the exhumation of Arafat's remains for new testing.

France opened a former murder inquiry into Arafat's death in late August at Suha's request, and French judges in charge of the investigation arrived in Ramallah on Sunday to participate in the exhumation process.