JARRATT, Va., 16 November 2002 — Mir Aimal Kasi, a Pakistani who killed two CIA employees in 1993 in a rage over American policy in the Middle East, was executed by lethal injection on Thursday, in a case that sparked protests in his homeland and fears of retaliation against US interests. Kasi, 38, was pronounced dead at 9:07 p.m. EST (0207 GMT) at the Greensville Correctional Center in southeast Virginia, said Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections.
Kasi looked sad as he entered the death chamber, witnesses said. Kasi’s spiritual adviser Dr. Miah Muhammad Saeed, president of the Islamic Center in northern Virginia, accompanied him into the death chamber. The two men appeared to be praying quietly but continuously until Kasi’s death. His last words were, “There is no God but Allah,” said Traylor.
On Jan. 25, 1993, Kasi, also known in Pakistan as Kansi, parked his pickup truck near CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, during the morning rush hour, picked up an AK-47 and began methodically shooting into cars at a stoplight. Two people were killed and three wounded before he got back into his truck and left the scene unhindered. He flew to Pakistan the next day but was arrested in 1997, convicted and sentenced to die.
The US State Department last week issued a warning to Americans abroad. Four Americans were killed in Pakistan after Kasi’s 1997 conviction, and threats were made in Pakistan in recent days to harm Americans if Kasi was executed.
But Kasi, who was not believed to have had any links with terrorist organizations, let it be known through his lawyers that he “does not want anybody hurt in his name or as a result of his execution.” As a precaution, however, the Virginia State Police said heightened security was provided at the prison and at the state capitol in Richmond.
An FBI agent testified that Kasi confessed he wanted to punish the US government for bombing Iraq, for what he saw as its involvement in the killing of Palestinians and because the CIA was too deeply involved in the internal affairs of Muslim countries. Protesters in Pakistan said Kasi’s actions were understandable. “Aimal is not a terrorist,” tribal elder Ibrahim Kansi told demonstrators in the Pakistani city of Quetta. “His action was a reaction to what was happening to Muslims in Chechnya and Palestine.”
The US Supreme Court turned down Kasi’s latest appeal Thursday. And Virginia Gov. Mark Warner denied a clemency request from Kasi’s stepmother and the Pakistani Embassy. He was sentenced to die for the killings of CIA employees Frank Darling, 28, and Lansing Bennett, 66.
Darling’s father-in-law, Richard Becker, whose daughter was in the car when her husband was murdered, issued a statement on behalf of his family.
“The justice system of the United States and the State of Virginia performed and have been heard. On Thursday, we will spend time in prayer for Kasi, that God will have mercy on his soul, for his family, that there be no terrorism reprisal, and for world peace.” (R)
