BEIJING, Aug. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- A French court has opened an official inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death, in 2004, of former Palestinian president Yasser . It follows an official complaint by his widow in July alleging he’d been murdered.

Arafat’s widow lodged the complaint after Lausanne University’s Institute of Radiation Physics reported abnormal traces of the radioactive element Polonium on his clothing and belongings. Arafat died in on November 11th, 2004, at the age of 75 after spending 10 days in a military hospital outside Paris.

Allegations of foul play quickly surfaced after doctors treating him said they could not establish a cause of death. Last July, the Paris lawyer representing the family said the discovery of Polonium made an investigation necessary.

The controversy was reignited in early July when Swiss scientists said, in an Al Jazeera documentary, that surprisingly high levels of polonium-210 had been found on Arafat’s personal effects, the same substance used to kill former n spy, Alexander Litvinenko, in London in 2006.

(Source: CNTV.cn)