AIDS possible cause of Yasser Arafat death

JERUSALEM – The Palestinians’ iconic leader Yasser Arafat died of poisoning, AIDS or an infection, according to a confidential medical report on his death in a French hospital last November, an Israeli newspaper revealed yesterday.

The Ha’aretz daily said Israeli and foreign doctors who have seen the report say it cannot pinpoint a conclusive cause of death, other than the massive brain haemorrhage that Arafat suffered shortly before being declared dead. With the medical report hitherto kept under wraps by Arafat’s widow and senior Palestinian officials, the mystery over the veteran leader’s death has been subject to a wave of conspiracy theories, principally that he was poisoned by Israel.The leaked report is now being published for the first time in a new edition of a book called “The Seventh War” written by Israeli journalists Amos Harel and Avi Isacharoff, to be published next week in Hebrew.”A discussion among a large number of medical experts…shows that it is impossible to pinpoint a cause that will explain the combination of symptoms that led to the death of the patient,” it said.Doctor Ashraf al-Kurdi, Arafat’s personal doctor who did not treat his patient during the final weeks of his life, said the French doctors found the HIV virus that leads to AIDS in the leader’s blood, Ha’aretz reported.Al-Kurdi refuses to divulge the source of this information, but claims the virus was put into Arafat’s blood in an effort to conceal the traces of poisoning, which was the real cause of death.- Nampa-AFPWith the medical report hitherto kept under wraps by Arafat’s widow and senior Palestinian officials, the mystery over the veteran leader’s death has been subject to a wave of conspiracy theories, principally that he was poisoned by Israel.The leaked report is now being published for the first time in a new edition of a book called “The Seventh War” written by Israeli journalists Amos Harel and Avi Isacharoff, to be published next week in Hebrew.”A discussion among a large number of medical experts…shows that it is impossible to pinpoint a cause that will explain the combination of symptoms that led to the death of the patient,” it said.Doctor Ashraf al-Kurdi, Arafat’s personal doctor who did not treat his patient during the final weeks of his life, said the French doctors found the HIV virus that leads to AIDS in the leader’s blood, Ha’aretz reported.Al-Kurdi refuses to divulge the source of this information, but claims the virus was put into Arafat’s blood in an effort to conceal the traces of poisoning, which was the real cause of death.- Nampa-AFP