A failed hit woman from Wisconsin convicted of attempting to assassinate a man in Birmingham, England, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for her part in the plot.
Aimee Betro, 45, attempted to shoot the man outside his family home while disguised in an Islamic veil, but failed when her gun jammed. She was convicted of conspiracy to murder, possessing a firearm and importing ammunition this month after a three-week trial.
Judge Simon Drew said Ms. Betro was “recruited to conduct what was intended to be an execution” by her British boyfriend, Mohammed Nazir, who she had met through an online dating website.
Mr. Nazir, 31, and his father, Mohammed Aslam, 56, mounted the plot as revenge against a rival family, as part of a bitter dispute that started in 2018. They were jailed for their part in the conspiracy last November.
Prosecutors said that Ms. Betro, her face covered by a niqab, lay in wait for their target, Sikander Ali, outside his family home on Sept. 7, 2019. When Mr. Ali arrived in his car and started to get out, Ms. Betro walked toward him, raised a black handgun and pulled the trigger just inches away from his face.
The gun jammed and Mr. Ali was able to get back into his vehicle and quickly reversed to escape, prosecutors said.
Ms. Betro got into her car and left the scene, but hours later, she returned in a taxi and opened fire on Mr. Ali’s home, with three bullets flying through its windows. No one was harmed.
Afterward, she sent Mr. Ali’s father taunting messages. “Where are you hiding,” she wrote, with another message threatening: “Stop playing hide ‘n’ seek you’re lucky it jammed.”
Ms. Betro, who is from the city of West Allis, about six miles outside Milwaukee, fled immediately after the attempted shooting. She remained on the run for almost five years before being traced to Armenia last summer, and extradited to face trial in Britain.
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