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US Executes Pakistani For
1993 Killing Of CIA Employees

11-15-2

(AFP) -- Pakistani national Mir Aimal Kasi was executed here by lethal injection for the murder of two Central Intelligence Agency employees, a Virginia state prison spokesman said.
 
Kasi was pronounced dead at 9:07 pm Thursday (0207 GMT Friday) at Greensville Correctional Center, said Larry Traylor, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.
 
Kasi, 38, was executed over the 1993 murders of two Central Intelligence Agency employees with an AK-47 military rifle in front of the agency's Langley, Virginia, headquarters. Three others were wounded in the shootings.
 
Virginia Governor Mark Warner refused Kasi's request for clemency after the US Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal for a stay of execution.
 
"Mr. Kasi has admitted to the crimes for which he was convicted and showed no remorse for his actions. After a thorough review of Mr. Kasi's petition for clemency and the judicial opinions regarding this case I have concluded that the death penalty is appropriate in this instance. I will not intervene," said Warner in a statement.
 
Kasi's family and the Pakistani government had asked for his life to be spared and his sentence commuted on humanitarian grounds.
 
"Kasi said he wanted to teach the US a lesson not to meddle in other countries' affairs, especially Muslim countries," said Brad Garrett, the FBI agent in charge of Kasi's case.
 
His execution also sparked fears of reprisals by Islamist militants, despite Kasi's pleas for peace.
 
"I don't want that anybody should attack, like Americans, in Pakistan or any other Muslim country. I don't encourage people to attack anybody," Kasi told NBC News.
 
Nevertheless security around the prison here was tight and US authorities in Pakistan were on a heightened state of alert. Armed patrols circled the low white prison buildings and gunman surveyed the scene from watchtowers.
 
The US State Department issued a worldwide warning last week of possible reprisals from Islamist groups angered at Kasi's scheduled execution. Officials said the US embassy in Islamabad and consulates in Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi will close early Friday as a precaution.
 
Hundreds of demonstrators in Kasi's hometown of Quetta, in the desert tribal province of Baluchistan in southwestern Pakistan, protested the execution.
 
 
 
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