More than four years after Yasir Arafat died, Arab doctors will meet in Jordan this week to look into lingering suspicions that he was poisoned. Mr. Arafat, who led the Palestinian movement for almost 40 years, fell violently ill in October 2004 at his West Bank compound in Ramallah. He was moved to a French hospital, where he died on Nov. 11, 2004, at the age of 75. At the time, French doctors bound by strict privacy rules were tight-lipped about Mr. Arafat’s condition, and his widow refused an autopsy, fueling rumors. Palestinian leaders have never given a definitive cause of his death. Mr. Arafat’s medical records, later obtained by The New York Times, show that he died from a stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder caused by an unidentified infection. A review of the records suggested that poisoning was highly unlikely. French doctors sent specimens to three laboratories for standard toxicology tests to detect metals and drugs like barbiturates, opiates and amphetamines, but none were detected.

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