Palestinian man buys Arafat's official car

(MENAFN) Twelve years after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death, a Palestinian man has bought his car as a souvenir, pledging that it is for keeps once it is restored.

"What a pure blessing it was to keep this souvenir from Palestinian leader Arafat. I found a diamond in the rough," Mohammad Salem Al Shafei said.

The official state car, a 1998 Mercedes Benz S600 was one of Arafat's convoy of ten cars that had been abandoned in the yard of Al Mukata'a government headquarters in Ramallah for years.

Al Shafei who is the chief of the Nablus-based Salem Dynamometer Station, a vehicle inspection centre, said the car was sold to the highest bidder in a sealed bid auction.