A Wisconsin woman has been convicted in the United Kingdom of conspiring to murder a man in an assassination attempt tied to a long-running family feud.
On Tuesday, August 12, a jury at Birmingham Crown Court found 44-year-old Aimee Betro guilty of conspiracy to murder and two firearms offenses, according to the Crown Prosecution Service. Betro, a resident of West Allis, Wisconsin, had no significant prior criminal history. Yet in 2019, prosecutors said, she traveled to Britain, disguised herself in a niqab, and attempted to carry out a contract killing on behalf of a man she had met through a dating app.
The intended victim, Sikander Ali, was the son of a Birmingham shop owner involved in a violent dispute with the family of Betro’s lover, Mohammed Nazir. The court heard that a year before the attempt on Ali’s life, Nazir and his father, Mohammed Aslam, were injured in a fight at the Ali family’s clothing store. That altercation deepened tensions between the two families, and prosecutors said Nazir later persuaded Betro to act as his hitwoman.
Jurors were shown CCTV footage from July 2019 in which Betro waited outside Ali’s home for roughly 45 minutes before approaching him with a gun in her hand. At point-blank range, she pulled the trigger — but the weapon jammed, allowing Ali to retreat into his car and escape.
The following day, Betro returned to the home in a taxi and fired three shots into the property, causing extensive damage. As she left, she sent taunting text messages from a burner phone to the victim’s father, including, “stop playing hide ’n’ seek you’re lucky it jammed.” She fled the country soon after.
Nazir and Aslam were convicted of conspiracy to murder last year. Nazir received a 32-year sentence; Aslam was sentenced to 10 years. By that time, Betro had gone underground, evading capture for five years. Prosecutors said she had been hiding in Armenia until a journalist from the Daily Mail located her and alerted authorities. She was extradited to the U.K. to stand trial.
During the proceedings, prosecutors described Betro as an “unexceptional” woman who nonetheless became entangled in an international murder plot. The case drew attention not only for its violent details, but also for its improbable origins — a transatlantic romance that spiraled into a conspiracy involving disguises, burner phones, and international flight from justice.
Betro will be sentenced on August 21, facing the possibility of a lengthy prison term. For prosecutors, her conviction closes the final chapter in a case that began with a street-level brawl in Birmingham and ended with a five-year global search for the woman they say tried — and failed — to kill on command.
