UNITED NATIONS, Dec 15: The President of the UN General Assembly, Miguel d’escoto Brockman, on Monday disclosed that he had received death threats on the internet. He also rejected an Israeli allegation that he had barred its representative from speaking in the UNGA last week.

At a press briefing, a spokesman for Mr Brockman told reporters that the president’s office had informed law enforcement agencies at the United Nations and New York about the threats.

Defending himself against the Israeli government’s charge, Mr D’escoto Brockman characterised them as “slander”, adding it could be judged a criminal act in any court of law. The spokesman clarified that “libel” is a criminal act.

The UN General Assembly president also expressed concern over the “arbitrary detention of Prof Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Israeli occupied territories”.

Mr Peter Falk, a statement said, was trying to carry out his mandate investigating human rights violations affecting the protected civilian population of Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem, the territories occupied by Israel since 1967. “Most urgently he intended to investigate the rising humanitarian crisis in Gaza strip resulting from the siege of Gaza’s 1.5 million population imposed by the occupying power,” the statement added.

Mr D’escoto Brockman observed “such action by a member state of the United Nations reflects a dangerous decision by individual countries to rebuff UN mandates and the UN appointed mandate holders saying “this is not conducive to the good climate” in the region.