A US woman disguised in a niqab whose gun jammed during a failed assassination plot in Birmingham has been jailed for 30 years.
Aimee Betro flew to the UK before she tried to shoot clothing shop owner Sikander Ali at point-blank range outside his home in Measham Grove, Yardley, Birmingham, shortly after 8pm on September 7 2019.
Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court found the 45-year-old graphic design and childhood education graduate guilty of conspiracy to murder as well as of possessing a self-loading pistol and fraudulently evading the prohibition on importing ammunition on August 12.
The jury of six men and six women deliberated for almost 21 hours before returning its verdicts, two of which were by an 11-1 majority.
Betro, who is originally from West Allis in Wisconsin but lived in Armenia until earlier this year, took part in a plot orchestrated by co-conspirators Mohammed Aslam, 56, and his son Mohammed Nabil Nazir, 31, who were sentenced for their part last year, following a feud with Mr Ali’s father, Aslat Mahumad.
Nazir was jailed for 32 years in November 2024 for offences including conspiracy to murder while Aslam was sentenced to 10 years.
Betro was wearing a white top, black cardigan and her hair in plaits in the dock on Thursday, Betro showed no emotion as Judge Simon Drew KC jailed her for 30 years, with concurrent sentences of six years for possessing a firearm and two years for evading the prohibition.
He said: “You went beyond simply reaching an agreement to kill and, in reality, you did intend to kill Mr Ali. It is only a matter of chance that Mr Ali wasn’t killed.
“You were engaged in a complex, well-planned conspiracy to murder. You were prepared to pull the trigger and did so on two separate occasions.”
During Betro’s trial prosecution counsel Tom Walkling KC said she met Nazir, who lived in Derby, on a dating app in late 2018 and then communicated with him via Snapchat before flying to the UK on Christmas Day of the same year.
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