Ramallah , West Bank ( CNN ) -- Work began Tuesday to exhume the body of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat amid an investigation of his 2004 death . The exhumation process , which started with the removal of the mausoleum 's glass and its marble tombstone , could take up to two weeks due to the delicate work that needs to be done by hand , a Palestinian source said . The exhumation comes after French authorities opened a murder inquiry into his death this year after high levels of a radioactive substance were found on some of his personal belongings . Read more : Palestinian leader signs off on Arafat exhumation , PLO official says . The inquiry was launched after Arafat 's widow , Suha Arafat , lodged a formal legal complaint for murder . Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas subsequently approved the exhumation of Arafat 's body from his mausoleum , which is in the Palestinian presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah . Read more : Arafat 's widow wants body exhumed after test for radioactivity . A CNN crew at the scene saw a huge tarp surrounding the mausoleum and said workers were starting to remove the tombstone . Arafat died at age 75 at a Paris military hospital after he suffered a brain hemorrhage and slipped into a coma . In the days before his death , Palestinian officials said that he had a blood disorder -- though they ruled out leukemia -- and digestive problems . Rumors of poisoning circulated at the time , but Palestinian officials denied them , and then-Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath said he `` totally '' ruled them out . Read more : French prosecutors launch murder inquiry in Arafat 's death . But a Swiss doctor has said that investigators had found high levels of toxic polonium-210 on some of Arafat 's belongings . Francois Bochud , director of the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne , Switzerland , said his researchers had tested Arafat 's toothbrush , clothing and keffiyeh , the distinctive black-and-white headscarf he often wore . A body fluid stain contained 180 megabecquerels per liter of the radioactive isotope , while a typical sample would contain 5 megabecquerels per liter , Bochud said . A becquerel is a unit of measurement of radioactivity . The fabric of Arafat 's clothing , without body fluid , contained less than 10 megabecquerels per liter , Bochud said . Suha Arafat told CNN she wanted her husband 's body exhumed so investigators could be `` 100 % sure '' of the presence of polonium . CNN 's Sara Sidner contributed to this report .
NEW : The work could take the days . The exhumation of the body of CNN leader Suha Arafat begins . The inquiry was launched after Suha Arafat 's widow , Arafat , lodged a formal complaint . This comes after French authorities opened a murder inquiry into his death .