Woman disguised in niqab guilty of conspiracy to murder in Birmingham

The Guardian

a day ago

A would-be killer who tried to shoot a rival at point-blank range while disguised in a niqab has been found guilty of conspiracy to murder.
Aimee Betro, 45, who is originally from the US, flew to the UK as part of a revenge plot orchestrated by father and son co-conspirators Mohammed Aslam, 59, and Mohammed Nabil Nazir, 31, to attack a family they had been feuding with.
Jurors at Birmingham crown court deliberated for 21 hours before finding Betro guilty on the charges of conspiracy to murder, possessing a self-loading pistol with intent to cause fear of violence, and illegally importing ammunition.
The jury, who had been given a majority direction by Judge Drew, found Betro guilty by 11-1 verdicts on the conspiracy to murder and firearm charges, and by a unanimous verdict on the ammunition charge.
Betro, from Wisconsin, did not react and merely stared towards the jury bench as the verdicts were read out. She remained emotionless when escorted back to her cell.
The court heard how she had tried to shoot Sikander Ali outside his home in Yardley, Birmingham, on the evening of 7 September 2019, but her handgun jammed.
Betro told the court that she had met Nazir on a dating app and had travelled to the UK twice before the attempted killing to spend time with him, including between December 2018 and January 2019. She told jurors that the third trip was to celebrate her birthday and attend a boat party.
CCTV footage presented to the court showed Betro standing outside Ali's suburban home shortly before 8pm on 7 September. As Ali exited his car, Betro was shown to pull out a handgun but failed to fire any rounds, with Ali jumping back into his car and driving away.
Jurors heard that Betro and her co-conspirators targeted the victim after Aslam and Nazir were injured during a physical altercation in a shop owned by Ali's father, Aslat Mahumad, which led the pair to resolve to have him or a member of his family killed as retribution.
After the failed murder attempt, the court heard that Betro texted Ali's father messages such as 'Where are you hiding?' and 'Stop playing hide and seek, you are lucky it jammed.'
The court was told that hours later, Betro returned to Ali's home in a taxi and fired three rounds into his now empty house, before leaving again.
The defence barrister, Paul Lewis KC, said he was not asking for pre-sentence reports as they would not assist the court.
Drew told the court: 'I suspect Miss Betro would like to know the outcome of this case and there is nothing worse than sitting waiting.'
Betro, who fled to the US while Aslam and Nazir were tried in the same court, spent several years in Armenia after the attempted murder, before being arrested last summer and extradited to the UK in January this year.
John Sheehan, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service's extradition unit that returned Betro to the UK, called the operation a 'complex investigation and extradition process'.
He said he hoped the conviction would send a clear message that the CPS would 'pursue criminals who attempt to evade justice, and make sure that they are brought to a courtroom to be held accountable for their actions'.
Betro is due to be sentenced on Thursday 21 August.