A father and son who hired a hijab-wearing hitwoman to murder a shopkeeper and his family have been jailed for more than 40 years.
Mohammed Nazir, 30, and his father Mohammed Aslam, 56, ordered American assassin Aimee Betro to shoot Sikander Ali in Birmingham in 2019, the city’s crown court was told.
Jurors heard Betro, originally from Wisconsin, wore a hijab as a disguise for the hit outside the home of Mr Ali’s father, Aslat Mahamud, in Acocks Green. But the would-be ‘execution’ failed when her gun jammed.
Nazir and Aslam were convicted of conspiracy to murder earlier this year. Nazir was jailed for 32 years, while Aslam was ordered to serve 10 years in prison.
Betro was said to have fled back to the US the day after the botched execution but was linked to the pair.
She is currently in custody in Armenia facing extradition proceedings to the UK after being tracked down to her hideout in the Vanahovit district of Proshyan village, on the north-western fringes of the capital Yerevan.
Judge Simon Drew KC said it had been unclear what the original dispute between the families had been about although it may have involved wedding clothes.
He said: ‘Aslam sustained a serious head injury and the result was there was considerable antagonism and resentment between the two families.
‘I am quite satisfied that the serious incident in July 2018 was the motive and motivation for what took place in September 2019.
‘The two of you planned a revenge attack on Mr Mahumad and his family. This was not a spontaneous reaction to events.
‘In order to do that you recruited Aimee Betro, an American woman, who you, Nazir, appeared to have met and befriended some time before in what frankly would, had it been successful, have amounted to an execution.
‘There is evidence to suggest that Betro was rewarded for taking part in it.’
Betro is said to have met Nazir, who allegedly fell out with Mr Ali and his father following a dispute, in a hotel before the attempt on his life.
The judge said there was evidence the two defendants had done a ‘recce’ of the area before the attempted hit and that Betro had waited a long period of time before confronting Mr Ali.
He added: ‘She was armed with a pistol probably supplied by you Nazir.
“’hen Mr Ali returned to his home CCTV footage recorded from a nearby property clearly shows Aimee Betro getting out of her car and approaching Mr Ali as he has got out of his car and at a distance, I would say, of six to seven yards then trying to shoot him.
‘It did not discharge.’
Judge Drew said the intention had been to kill a member of the Mahumad family if not Aslat Mahamud himself and added: ‘It is only a matter of chance that Sikander Ali was not killed.’
Recalling the failed hit, Mr Ali said he pulled up and noticed a Mercedes parked in a ‘stupid’ place and described someone in a hijab getting out and aiming a gun at him.
‘As I turned and looked, I saw the driver’s door was already open and the person was moving towards me,’ he said in a statement.
‘I could see this person had a gun in their hand. I felt scared.
‘The person moved their arm towards me and pointed directly at me.
‘I panicked at this point. I immediately got back into the car and slammed the door shut.’
Betro was said to have returned to the house hours later in a taxi and fired three shots through the windows, but nobody was hurt.
Mr Ali’s father received texts that read: ‘Where are you hiding?’ and ‘Stop playing hide and seek, you are lucky it jammed’.
Following Betro’s arrest, the Police of the Republic of Armenia confirmed the 44-year-old suspect was wanted by law enforcement agencies in the UK on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and illegal possession of a firearm.
Both men were convicted of conspiracy to murder, while Nazir was also found guilty of possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, perverting the course of justice and illegally importing firearms as part of a plan to bring guns into the country and frame someone else.
Hannah Sidaway of the Crown Prosecution Service said: ‘This was a methodical and well-planned attack against the victim’s family, where the offenders tried to cover their tracks by using a third party and burner devices to avoid detection.
‘In the plan to discharge a loaded firearm, their intention to kill was clear. This was a complex investigation involving collaboration between West Midlands and Derbyshire Police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the US authorities. It involved obtaining evidential material from the US including forensic samples to link the offenders with evidence from the crime scenes.
‘These convictions and sentences serve as a reminder of the consequences of using deadly weapons on our streets. We will continue to work with our criminal justice partners to bring such perpetrators to justice.’
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