Yasser Arafat’s widow Suha wiped away tears this morning as she sat at home in Malta, watching television reports of the exhumation of her husband.
Arafat’s remains were exhumed in Ramallah to enable forensic experts to lift samples in a bid to establish whether poisoning had caused his death eight years ago.
She described her husband’s death as the “most important mystery in the Middle East”.
Mrs Arafat said she asked for samples to be taken from her husband’s remains because it would bring closure to the case, adding that she owed this to Palestinian people all over the world, and her daughter.
She also said that she had not asked for an autopsy soon after her husband’s death because the body was taken away to Palestine by the Palestinian Authority.
Suha Arafat did not attend the exhumation this morning because she wanted the focus to be on her husband.
Read the full interview with Suha Arafat in tomorrow’s The Times.
Video - Darrin Zammit Lupi.