US woman in niqab gets 30 years for failed murder plot

An American woman disguised in a niqab whose gun jammed in a failed assassination plot has been jailed for 30 years.

- REBECCA WHITTAKER

Aimee Betro tried to shoot shop owner Sikander Ali at pointblank range outside his home in South Yardley, Birmingham, in September 2019. Earlier this month a jury at Birmingham Crown Court found the 45-year-old graphic design and childhood education graduate guilty of conspiracy to murder, possessing a self-loading pistol and fraudulently evading the prohibition on importing ammunition.

Betro, who is originally from West Allis, 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 showed no emotion yesterday 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.”