He was also not allowed to appeal the sentence to a higher court, in violation of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Amnesty International is concerned that public pressure induced the Palestinian Authority to try Colonel Ahmad Abu Mustafa without due process and to execute him. On 24 February, the day before he was put on trial, it became public knowledge that Colonel Ahmad Abu Mustafa was accused of raping a child. In Khan Younes, the town in the Gaza strip where the victim came from, people demonstrated in the streets, calling for Colonel Ahmad Abu Mustafa to be executed. Amnesty International urges the Palestinian Authority to resist calls for summary justice and the use of the death penalty from the general public and to adhere strictly to the Rule of Law in handling criminal cases which attract public concern.
Summary justice weakens rather than strengthens the Rule of Law.
To date the Palestinian Authority's State Security Court and military courts have issued more than 20 death sentences, often after the defendants received unfair trials. Most of these sentences have been commuted to life imprisonment. The Palestinian Authority carried out executions for the first time on 30 August 1998. Ra'ed and Muhammad Abu Sultan were executed by firing squad, only three days after they were charged with murder. They had been convicted, in an unfair trial, of killing two brothers in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip.