Arafat’s Widow to Get $22 Million Yearly from PA
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Yasser Arafat’s widow, Suha, is expected to receive a sum of $22 million a year out of the Palestinian Authority budget, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere De La Serra.
The paper said Mrs. Arafat reached an agreement about the money during a meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, the PLO’s newly elected chairman, who visited while she was staying next to her husband’s bed in the French military hospital outside Paris.
It said Mr. Abbas personally promised Mrs. Arafat that she would receive $22 million a year to cover her expenses in Paris. The paper noted that in July Arafat transferred to his wife $11 million to cover her living costs for the first six months of the year.
Mr. Abbas and the Palestinian leadership were forced to strike the deal with Mrs. Arafat after she refused to allow them to visit her husband in hospital.
The Palestinian Arab leaders reached the conclusion that it would be better to make a deal with her to solve the crisis surrounding Arafat’s possessions and secret bank accounts.
According to Palestinian Arab officials, the money that Mrs. Arafat is expected to receive will come from secret accounts held by Arafat and his cronies in various countries. They estimated that at least $4 billion are being held in these secret accounts.
