Arafat's widow asks France for murder probe

By Thierry Lévêque

PARIS (Reuters) - Yasser Arafat's widow asked a French court on Tuesday to launch a murder probe into the death of the former Palestinian leader, after a report suggested he was poisoned by a radioactive element before his death in a Paris military hospital in 2004.

"My husband died in an odd way. There are signs leading one to believe he was poisoned," Suha Arafat told Le Figaro daily.

Arafat was flown to France in October 2004 from his battered headquarters in Ramallah where he had been effectively confined by Israel for more than two and a half years, after a sudden collapse in his health.

He died a month later and allegations of foul play quickly circulated after the doctors who treated him said they could not establish a precise cause of death.

The lawsuit filed by Suha and Arafat's 17-year-old daughter Zahwa in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre accused a person or persons unknown of premeditated murder.

"It is surprising that a sovereign country like France does not know the cause of death of a head of state, cared for in one of its own hospitals," Suha Arafat told Le Figaro.

The legal complaint followed a Swiss institute's discovery of surprisingly high levels of polonium-210 on Arafat's clothing - the same substance used to kill former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

Suha said her suspicions were raised when she contacted the hospital to retrieve blood and urine samples taken from her husband and was told they were destroyed four years ago.