RAMALLAH, Palestine
France has urged Palestinian officials not to issue a death penalty against whoever is implicated in the assassination of former Palestinian Authority (PA) President Yasser Arafat in 2004, the Fatah movement said Wednesday.
"We received a message from France 20 days ago asking us not to issue a death penalty against anyone who might be convicted of assassinating Arafat," Tawfik al-Tirawi, who leads Fatah's investigation commission into Arafat's death, said in an interview with Palestinian public radio.
Earlier this week, French investigators who launched a probe into Arafat's death in 2012 – in response to a complaint by the late leader's wife, Soha Arafat – said they had concluded their investigation in late April.
They said investigation results had been referred to French prosecutors who would have three months to look into the case.
"After consulting with [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas, we responded by saying that we would not interfere with the decisions of the independent Palestinian judiciary," al-Tirawi said.
"It appears that France is covering up for certain information it is withholding regarding Arafat's death," al-Tirawi added.
"We have not been contacted by French investigators since the probe was launched," he noted.
After several months under an Israeli siege of the PA's Ramallah headquarters, Arafat died at the age of 75 in France in 2004 under suspicious circumstances. At the time, doctors had been unable to determine the cause of death.
After his remains were exhumed in November 2012, tests conducted on his body by a team of Swiss experts revealed "unexpectedly high" traces of polonium-210, a highly radioactive substance.
Polonium is found in miniscule amounts in food and is created naturally in the body, but it can be fatal if ingested in high doses.
Palestinians have long accused Israel of being behind Arafat's death. Israel, for its part, has repeatedly denied any involvement.
