Opening statements in trial Wednesday

FAIRFAX, Virginia (CNN) - A Virginia prosecutor told a jury Wednesday that Mir Aimal Kasi went on a fatal shooting spree outside CIA headquarters to protest the U.S. bombing of Iraq and other perceived insults to Muslims.

The remarks came during opening statements in the trial of Kasi, 33, who is accused of killing two CIA employees and wounding three others in January 1993. Prosecutors say he sprayed cars with fire from an AK-47 assault rifle as they sat during morning rush hour waiting to turn into the CIA's main gate in McLean.

But Kasi's attorney, assistant public defender Frank Romano, suggested that Kasi's statements to the FBI, upon which much of prosecution's case is based, were coerced after his capture in Pakistan last summer.

He said Kasi had been held virtually incommunicado for two days and that he was hooded, handcuffed and put into leg shackles before being extradited to the United States.

Kasi has pleaded not guilty. The prosecution is seeking the death penalty.

Prosecutor: Israeli embassy original target

Spelling out details of Kasi's alleged motives in the murders, Virginia Commonwealth Attorney Robert Horan said Kasi, of Quetta, Pakistan, had admitted to targeting the CIA after weighing a possible attack against the Israeli embassy in Washington.

Horan told the jury that Kasi decided instead to shoot men waiting to drive into the spy agency, calculating they would be less heavily armed than Israeli embassy staff.

Horan said Kasi, after voluntarily waiving his right to consult a lawyer, confessed to an FBI agent on a June 17 flight back to the United States following a 4 1/2-year manhunt.

Kasi told the FBI agent, Bradley Garrett, that he had been angry about the U.S. bombing of Iraq and what he saw as CIA interference in Muslim nations by "making tricks," Horan said.

Kasi told Garrett he was also fed up by television pictures of Palestinians being killed in Israel and the West Bank, Horan said.

"He just wanted (to punish) the CIA and was willing to shoot whoever happened to be there," Horan said.

Horan said he told the FBI agent that he had spared women in the waiting cars because "it was against his religion" to hurt them.

Kasi entered the United States on a business visa in 1991, sought asylum the next year and flew home to Pakistan the day after the 1993 shootings.

Defense admits murder weapon in Kasi's apartment

Kasi's court-appointed defense team acknowledged that the murder weapon had been found in an apartment Kasi shared in Virginia, and that Kasi had bought the weapon. They also conceded that his fingerprints were found on empty bullet casings at the scene of the shootings.

But Romano reminded jurors that it was up to prosecutors to prove the 10 charges against Kasi beyond any reasonable doubt.

Romano said in an interview earlier that the defense team had notified the court it would not mount an insanity defense, even though the defense says it has evidence of a neurological disorder that might have affected Kasi's judgment.

However, the defense may still use that evidence, in the event of a conviction, during the penalty phase.

Witness describes shooting of husband

After the opening statements Wednesday, testimony began.

Judith Darling, a CIA logistics officer and the widow of one of those killed in the shooting, described diving to the floorboard of her car when the shooting began.

Sobbing as she spoke, Darling said the first thing she heard was the shattering of the rear window. She quoted her husband as saying, "Oh my God, I've been shot, get down."

After hearing more shots that sounded "like balloons popping," she said, she looked up to see her husband had been shot in the head, with "skin hanging everywhere." She ran for help to the CIA gate house, she said.

A prosecution witness, Angela Clark, positively identified Kasi as the gunman.

Three of those wounded described how the gunman walked between the two lanes of cars waiting to turn, firing to his right and left before returning to fire three more shots at Darling, his first victim.

Kasi, wearing a full beard, a dark pinstriped suit and a burgundy print tie, showed no emotion during the testimony.

Reuters contributed to this report.