Paris (CNN) -- French authorities have opened a murder inquiry into the death of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a prosecution official said Tuesday.
The inquiry comes after last month's discovery of high levels of a radioactive substance on some of Arafat's personal belongings. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas subsequently approved the exhumation of Arafat's body.
Arafat died in 2004 at age 75 at a Paris military hospital after he suffered a brain hemorrhage and slipped into a coma. Palestinian officials said in the days before his death that Arafat had a blood disorder -- though they ruled out leukemia -- and that he had digestive problems.
Rumors of poisoning circulated at the time, but Palestinian officials denied them, and then-Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath said he "totally" ruled them out.
