An American woman who travelled to UK to carry out a hit on her lover’s rival has been jailed for 30 years.
Aimee Betro, 45, wore a niqab in an attempt to disguise her appearance before shooting Sikander Ali, 33, at close range outside his house in September 2019.
He only survived as the gun jammed and he managed to escape in his car, but undeterred Betro then returned hours later to fire three shots through the window of his family home.
Miraculously, no one was injured and Betro was able to return to America and then on to Armenia – spending five years on the run before she was eventually tracked down by the Daily Mail and arrested by police.
She carried out the failed hit for thug Mohammed Nabil Nazir, 31, who she met on a dating site in 2018.
Nazir and his father Mohammed Aslam, 57, have both already been jailed for their part in the bizarre plot, which followed a row between two families over wedding clothes and escalated into the assassination attempt in a Birmingham cul-de-sac.
This morning, Betro was also jailed. Judge Simon Drew KC told the defendant she was ‘recruited to conduct what was intended to be an execution’ and appeared to have acted ‘out of infatuation or love’.
The judge went on: ‘Indeed, when you gave evidence you said that despite only meeting Nazir face to face on one brief occasion, by the time you arrived in the UK in August 2019 you were in love with him.’
Betro in a police mugshot, released after she was found guilty of conspiracy to murder
Betro wore a niqab in an attempt to disguise her appearance before blasting Sikander Ali, 33, at close range outside his house
Aimee Betro, now 45, in a social media post, was found guilty of conspiracy to murder
The judge told Betro: ‘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 and were prepared to pull the trigger, and did so on two separate occasions.’
Betro, who wore pink Converse trainers and her hair in two ‘space buns’ during her trial, was found guilty earlier this month of conspiracy to murder, possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and a charge related to the alleged importation of ammunition into the UK.
She was found guilty by a majority 11 on the conspiracy to murder and firearm charges, and by a unanimous verdict on the ammunition charge following a three week trial.
Seven of the jurors who convicted her last week returned to Birmingham Crown Court to see Betro sentenced.
The would-be assassin, wearing a black cardigan over a white vest top, showed no emotion as her sentence was handed down.
The court heard Betro was previously of good character.
Paul Lewis KC, defending, told the judge Betro was ‘recruited by Mr Nazir into this enterprise’, who the court heard had also ‘probably provided the gun to her’.
CCTV showing the shooter with gun drawn in Measham Grove, Birmingham
Betro seen on CCTV at McDonalds after the day after the shooting
The barrister said Nazir was the ‘instigator and the prime mover in what occurred’, and that there was no evidence that Betro benefited financially from the plot.
He said, there was a ‘degree of amateurism in the planning’ of the attack and noted how Betro had bought two ‘burner phones’ – but used her own phone to order a taxi to take her back to Measham Grove ‘on the occasion when shots were actually fired’.
Betro has never given her account to police because she was extradited under a ‘red notice’, meaning she was immediately charged and remanded in custody rather than arrested and interviewed before being charged.
But during her trial she denied being the shooter in the niqab, claiming during her trial that another ‘American woman who sounded similar, used the same phone and had the same trainers’ carried out the botched hit.
She said it was just a ‘terrible coincidence’ she was caught on CCTV around the corner six minutes later.
After he conviction, police described her as someone with a ‘problematic relationship with the truth’.
She met Nazir, who lived in Derby and who was 13 years her junior, on a dating app in September 2018 when he was using the name ‘Dr Ice’.
She soon started planning a planning a two-week trip to the UK to celebrate her graduation and New Year’s Eve, arriving in London on Christmas Day 2018.
She had carried out the failed hit for thug Mohammed Nabil Nazir, 31, who she admitted to being in love with despite the pair meeting just twice before she tried to kill for him.
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Jurors heard Betro stayed in an AirBnB at King’s Cross where she spent the night with Nazir.
She returned to the UK again in August 2019 – this time to do Nazir’s ‘bidding’ and try to kill his rival.
The court heard that after arriving in the UK Betro travelled around before booking into the Rotunda hotel in Birmingham, where on September 6 she phoned clothes shop owner Aslat Mahumad, claiming she wanted to buy the car he was selling online.
When her plan to lure Mr Mahumad out failed, she bought Mercedes E240 from a garage in Birmingham’s Alum Rock district.
The Mercedes was later seen at the entrance to Measham Grove, in the nearby suburb of Yardley. At 9.10pm Sikander Ali pulled onto Measham Grove in his black SUV – which was caught on camera.
In video footage played to the court, Betro, can be seen approaching the SUV and firing but the gun jams.
CCTV shows the shooter approach Mr Ali’s car as he pulls up with her gun drawn
Mr Ali is able to reverse away at speed, clipping the Mercedes’ door as he does. The court was told the collision bent the the door badly enough that it wouldn’t close, and Betro had to drive away with the door half open.
She later dumped the Mercedes and changed her clothes. Police found a black glove with Betro’s DNA inside.
Betro then sent text messages to her intended target, the court was told. Screenshots of the texts were shown to the jury.
She said to him: ‘Where are you hiding? followed by ‘Stop playing hide and seek you are lucky it jammed’.
Betro then called another taxi to take her back to Measham Grove.
Jurors were shown CCTV of a figure matching Betro’s description firing three shots into the family home.
The judge told Betro that while he accepted Nazir had recruited her, ‘You were the gunwoman – you were the person who was prepared to fire the gun, as a result you showed that you were weilling to carry out the killing yourself’.
Mohammed Aslam (pictured) and his son were jailed at Birmigham Crown Court last November
Judge Drew told Betro she would serve two thirds of her sentence before being released on licence.
Betro flew back to the US the following day from Manchester Airport.
Nazir flew out to join her three days later. He was arrested on his return to the UK. He and his father were jailed last year.
Nazir was sentenced to 32 years for conspiracy to murder while Mohammed Aslam, 56, was told he would serve 10 years.
Betro however remained on the run until the Daily Mail tracked her down to her hideaway in Armenia.
The Mail told West Midlands Police about her location on June 15 last year and agreed to a news blackout until she was arrested to avoid her fleeing again before she could be extradited back to the UK.
The court heard Betro had spent 198 days in custody in Armenia.
Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Orencas of West Midland Police’s Major Crime Unit, said: ‘This is a unique case which has involved a huge amount of work tracing the movements of Betro from her arrival into the UK, her subsequent failed attempt to shoot a man dead, and her departure from the UK.
‘It’s by luck that her attempt to kill her target failed, thanks to the jamming of her gun.’