Squiz Shortcuts - How Aimee Betro went from a dating app to an assassination plot

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How Aimee Betro went from a dating app to an assassination plot

A bizarre court case over a botched suburban assassination attempt by an American woman named Aimee Betro on behalf of her English boyfriend has been making headlines in the UK and the US. Before coming to a verdict, the jury in the case heard details of a fist-fight in a bridalwear store, a revenge plan by a father and son, and a faulty weapon that jammed at a crucial moment. Then there was the international manhunt involving the FBI, 2 police forces and a tabloid… So in this Squiz Shortcut, we’ll get you across:

• how Betro was eventually caught

• and where the court proceedings are up to…

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Sounds like there’s a lot to this one…
Yep… But at the heart of it is why a 45yo woman from America’s midwest would become involved in an assassinaton plot on a stranger in the UK. That question has been playing out in an English court where Aimee Betro has been facing trial on charges of conspiracy to murder, weapons possession and smuggling ammunition into the UK. 

Where is the case up to?
We’ll get to that, don’t worry. But first, let’s go back to where it all started... In July 2018, a man named Mohammed Nabil Nazir and his Dad, Mohammed Aslam, got into a physical fight with the owner of a bridalwear store in Birmingham, which is a city in the English Midlands. Nazir would later become Betro’s boyfriend.

Go on…
The shop owner’s name is Aslat Mahumad, and reports say the argument began over the price of a wedding suit. We don’t know who the suit was for, but in photographs of the father and son taken after the fight, Nazir had a swollen black eye, and his father Aslam had a cut over one of his eyes… 

Did they report the assault to the police?
Yep… Those photos were taken by the West Midlands Police. But instead of leaving it there, Nazir and his dad hatched a plan to get revenge. And not a mild sort… As part of Betro’s case, the Crown Court in Birmingham heard that the pair wanted Mahumad or a member of his family killed as retribution for beating them up…

So, where does Aimee Betro come into all of this?
Betro met Nazir on a dating app late in 2018 - so, a few months after the fight - and she flew to London to meet him over the Christmas break.

What did the jury hear about her?
Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Orencas from West Midlands Police said Betro was “a fairly unexceptional individual” who “didn’t have a large footprint criminally”. She was a graduate of courses in childhood development and graphic design, and she lived in the US city of West Allis, which is in the state of Wisconsin. 

How much time did she spend with Nazir?
During her trial, Betro told the jury she’d flown to the UK twice more to spend time with Nazir - the last trip being in September 2019, when she said they’d celebrated her birthday. But the Crown Prosecutor in the case, Hannah Sidaway, had a different version of events relating to Betro’s last trip. 

What does the Crown say happened?
The Crown claimed Betro was hired by Nazir and his father to carry out an assassination of Mahumad’s son, Sikander Ali, as payback for the shop fight the year before - and there was a trail of evidence to back it up… 

Tell me about the evidence…
The jury heard that on 7 September 2019, Betro rented a Mercedes from a suburb in Birmingham under the fake name of ‘Becky Booth’. That night, she parked opposite Sikander Ali’s house and disguised her face with a niqab (a type of Islamic veil). When he arrived home in his car, she walked up to his car door as he got out, raised a 9mm handgun and pulled the trigger.  

What happened…?
The gun jammed. The bullet didn’t fire, which saved Ali’s life. The court heard he quickly got back into his car and reversed out of there, and it was only through “sheer luck that he managed to get away unscathed” - that’s what Sidaway told the court. Betro drove away too, but that wasn’t the end of it. The jury heard she came back in a taxi, wearing different clothes, shortly after midnight.

What did she do that time?
The court heard she asked the cab to wait a short distance from Ali’s house, then she took out the gun again and opened fire through the front windows into the living room and a bedroom upstairs. The house was empty at the time, so no one was hurt. And when she returned to the taxi, she sent Ali’s father, Mahamad, text messages, saying: “Where are you hiding” and “Stop playing hide ‘n’ seek you’re lucky it jammed.”

Did she stick around?
No… The jury was told she flew out of London within hours, and Nazir met up with her in the US 3 days later. There, they allegedly tried to pin the assassination attempt on another British man, who was another rival of Nazir, by sending him ammunition and gun parts through the post, and then tipping off police anonymously. And it was through trying to cover their tracks that they instead left a trail through DNA, CCTV and text messages for police to follow…

Where did the trail lead?
First to Nazir, who was arrested when he flew back into the UK a few weeks later. He and his father were found guilty and sentenced for their roles in the plot - Nazir, who’s 31yo, was jailed for 32 years for conspiracy to murder and possession of a firearm, and his 59yo father Aslam was jailed for 10 years for conspiracy to murder.

Where was Betro while this was happening?
She went on the run and managed to evade authorities for 5 years… But during that time, police traced the origins of 3 postal packages containing the gun parts and ammunition back to an Illinois post office where Betro was seen on CCTV shipping them under a fake name. And DNA evidence also linked her to both the attempted assassination in Birmingham and the framing attempt. 

So, she’s no master criminal…
Ah, no… Her DNA was found inside those 3 packages and also on a black glove inside the Mercedes she hired to carry out the shooting. Once police knew who they were looking for, an international arrest warrant was issued for Betro in June last year. And police eventually tracked her down to Armenia… 

Remind me where that is on a map?
It’s a tiny country in Eastern Europe surrounded by Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. 

How was she found?
Reporters from The Daily Mail tracked her down first to where she was hiding out - and for that, the tabloid got an official ‘thank you’ from the West Midlands Police… After that, Betro was extradited to the UK and put on trial. 

Where is the trial up to?
Last week, the jury found her guilty of the conspiracy to murder and weapons charges she’d been accused of. Police said “an incredible amount of work” had gone into piecing together Betro’s movements in the UK before the assassination attempt, when she’d posted photos and videos of herself at famous landmarks to pass herself off as a tourist… 

So, why did she do it?
That’s the one thing police still aren’t certain of. DCI Orencas said there was no evidence of her being paid for the crime. And, asked whether she was motivated out of a romantic interest, he said: "They met on a dating site, whether this is a partner doing something for another partner, again, there's no clear evidence of that. I see it as a criminal association and a murderous plot."

What’s next in the proceedings?
That brings us to why we’re outlining the case for you… Betro’s due to be sentenced in the UK tonight, our time. So, if the story crosses your news path, now you’ll know what it’s all about…

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Onto our Recommendations

Reading: As we said, there’s a lot to take in with this case, so this wrap up by the BBC is a good one if you’d like to read a bit more about it.

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