WASHINGTON, November 11: Pakistani Mir Aimal Kasi has been found guilty of murdering two CIA employees in a 1993 shooting spree, which also left another three wounded, and now faces death penalty or life imprisonment.

A jury of 12 -- six men and six women -- convicted Kasi, 33, on nine other counts also, apart from capital murder, giving him 78 years in jail, Fairfax county court Judge J Howe Brown announced yesterday.

Kasi was captured on June 17 in Pakistan by FBI sleuths with apparent cooperation from the country's security set-up and was whisked out of the country in an American plane, after a four-year hunt for allegedly killing two CIA employees in a shootout outside the spy agency's headquarters, near here, when they were going to their office.

Lead prosecutor Robert Horan sought death penalty against Kasi whose defence called no witnesses during the trial.

Kasi, who figured on FBI's top ten list of wanted criminals, had pleaded not guilty. He showed no emotion in court as the jury pronounced its verdict.

Those killed in the January 25, 1993 rampage were Frank Darling (28), a CIA operative, and Lansing Bennett (66), a physician and intelligence analyst.

The defence has said it will plead that Kasi suffered from brain damage and did not realise what he was doing in front of the CIA office on the fateful day.

CIA analyst Angela Clark, the prosecution's key witness, testified that Kasi returned to finish off one of the victims with a ``killing shot'' after injuring him first.

Her own life was spared because killing women was against his religion, Horan told the jury.

Kasi's admission of guilt in a statement he gave to FBI sleuths on the flight back to the US after his capture in Pakistan came handy for the prosecution, though Kasi's lawyers said it was given under duress.

The US has an extradition treaty with Pakistan but Kasi never made a mandatory court appearance there for the purpose.y

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.