An American woman on Tuesday was found guilty at a United Kingdom court of participating in a 2019 plot to murder a British man caught up in a bitter feud between families.
Aimee Betro, 45, was extradited earlier this year from Armenia, where she was living, to face trial in the central English city of Birmingham.
Prosecutors told the court Betro had covered her face in a niqab as she climbed out of a car in September 2019 and tried to shoot Sikander Ali at point-blank range.
But the handgun jammed and Ali fled to his car parked outside his home.
The investigation into the Wisconsin native revealed her to be “fairly unexceptional” with virtually no “criminal footprint,” the BBC reported.
Prosecutors said Betro was part of a plot with co-conspirators Mohammed Aslam, 56, and his son, Mohammed Nabil Nazir, 31, to attack another family.
Both men were jailed for over 40 years in 2024 for their roles in a “violent” feud which erupted after they were injured in a brawl at Ali’s father’s clothing store in July 2018.
The feud between the families, Birmingham Crown Court heard, “clearly led Nazir and Aslam to conspire to have someone kill Aslat Mahumad or a member of his family,” the BBC reported. The pair turned to Betro — a woman not known by police “to have a huge footprint criminally” in the U.S. or anywhere, according to Officer Alastair Orencas from West Midlands Police’s major crime unit.
Betro, a childhood development and graphic design graduate from West Allis, Wisconsin, arrived in the U.K. in August 2019 to carry out the hit, the BBC reported.
“Betro tried to kill a man in a Birmingham street at point-blank range. It is sheer luck that he managed to get away unscathed,” said prosecutor Hannah Sidaway.
The case had been brought to trial after “years of hard work doggedly pursuing Aimee Betro across countries and borders,” she added.
Betro, who did not know Ali, denied three charges including conspiracy to murder and possessing a self-loading pistol.
Police handout
She maintained the real shooter was “another American woman” who sounded similar to her and had the same phone and brand of trainers.
Betro told jurors it was “just a terrible coincidence” that she had been close to the scene of the attack.
Police said they had seen no evidence that Betro was paid for her role in the attempted attack. She will be sentenced on Aug. 21.