French prosecutors drop investigation into Arafat poisoning claims

French investigators on Wednesday decided to drop their probe into claims that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was murdered without bringing any charges.

The late Palestinian Authority president's widow Suha Arafat says he was deliberately poisoned by radioactive elements in 2004.

Arafat was 75. He died in France four weeks after a sudden illness.

The official cause of death was a massive stroke, but his doctors were unable at the time to determine the origin of the illness. No autopsy was carried out.

Israeli leaders saw Arafat as an obstacle.

In 2012, an investigation by Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV, working with a Swiss team, found high levels of highly radioactive on some of Arafat's personal effects.

An investigation was subsequently opened in August 2012 at the request of Suha Arafat. His remains were exhumed and examined separately by French, Russian and Swiss experts.

None of the three teams found conclusive evidence of poisoning.

Arafat had many political opponents within his Fatah movement, disputes with whom had been often marked by tension.

Arafat had also led an uprising against Israel in 2000, after peace talks broke down. Israeli leaders increasingly saw Arafat as an obstacle to reaching a deal with the Palestinian side on their own terms.

Israel reoccupied areas in the West Bank and placed his compound repeatedly under siege between 2002 and 2004.

A lawyer for Suha Arafat told Reuters that they would challenge the decision in an appeals court.

Meanwhile, Tawfiq Tirawi, head of the Palestinian Authority's inquiry, told AFP: "We will continue our investigation to reach the killer of Arafat, until we know how Arafat was killed."