US visitor was not a tourist - she was here to assassinate shop owner after being hired by city dad and son

A US woman whose gun jammed while she was disguised in a niqab during a failed assassination attempt in Birmingham has been found guilty of conspiracy to murder.

- By SOPHIE ROBINSON and MATTHEW COOPER

Aimee Betro flew to the UK before she tried to shoot Sikander Ali at pointblank 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 graduate guilty of the charge as well as of possessing a self-loading pistol and fraudulently evading the prohibition on importing ammunition.

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, on Tuesday.

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, to attack a rival family.

Betro, wearing a black cardigan and with her hair in space buns, showed no obvious emotion in the dock when the verdicts were read out by the foreman of the jury.

Adjourning sentence until August 21, Judge Simon Drew KC 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 also showed no emotion as she was remanded in custody and led away to the cells.

Prosecution counsel Tom Walkling KC told Betro’s trial that she met Nazir, who lived in Derby, on a dating app.

Police say there is no evidence that Betro, who was extradited from Armenia earlier this year, was paid to take part in the plot by either Nazir or his father.

Both men were jailed last year for their part in the bungled assassination plot, following a feud with Mr Ali’s father, Aslat Mahumad.

Mr Walkling said “revenge was the motive” after Nazir and Aslam were injured during disorder at Mr Mahumad’s clothing boutique in Birmingham in July 2018, which led them to conspire to have someone kill him or a member of his family.