A US woman disguised in a niqab whose gun jammed during a failed assassination plot in Birmingham has been jailed for 30 years.
Aimee Betro flew to the UK before she tried to shoot Sikander Ali at point-blank 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 conspiracy to murder as well as possessing a self-loading pistol and fraudulently evading the prohibition on importing ammunition, on August 12.
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.
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.
Wearing a white top, black cardigan and her hair in plaits in the dock on Thursday, Betro showed no emotion 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.”
