An American woman has denied any involvement in a failed assassination plot, telling jurors she never had a gun in her possession at any time during her visit to the UK.
Aimee Betro is alleged to have flown into Britain and taken part in a plot orchestrated by co-conspirators Mohammed Aslam, 56, and his son Mohammed Nabil Nazir, 31, to attack a rival family in September 2019.
The 45-year-old, from West Allis in Wisconsin, told jurors on Tuesday that she did not know there had been an attempted shooting when she left the UK two days afterwards.
Prosecutors allege Betro hid her identity using a niqab when she tried to shoot Sikander Ali at point blank range outside his home in Measham Grove, Yardley, Birmingham, but the gun jammed, allowing him to flee.
Addressing the evidence against her in chronological order during questioning by defence barrister Paul Lewis KC, Betro claimed she was in Birmingham city centre at the time of the attempted assassination and a follow-up shooting at the intended victim’s house hours later.
She also maintained that a woman described as having an American accent and being small and fat, who bought a vehicle linked to the plot, was not her.
During her second day of evidence to Birmingham Crown Court, Mr Lewis asked Betro: “In effect the Crown are saying that Mr Nazir or his father got you involved in a plan to kill, and that you were the person who actually wielded the gun?”
Betro answered “it wasn’t me” and added that there was no truth in the allegations made against her.
Asserting that she had “no reason or motive” to carry out the shooting and did not know the intended victim’s family, Betro said she would have said no if she had been asked to take part in any plot.
After viewing CCTV in court and claiming the person seen in the niqab was not her, Betro said she was in Birmingham city centre at the time of the incident.
Asked where she was at the time, Betro said: “I don’t really know where but I didn’t leave the centre.”
At the time of the second gun-related incident, Betro said of her whereabouts: “I was out with my friend and his friends – my friend that did work with a music streaming service.
“We just went out – just around the centre. I don’t really know where we went. I don’t know the names.”
Betro went on to claim that she did not have possession of a gun at any time during the night of September 7 into the early hours of September 8, when three shots were fired at a house in Measham Grove after a woman arrived there in a taxi.
She added that she did not have a gun in her possession at any time while in the UK, which she left via Manchester Airport two days after the attempted assassination.
Betro told the jury on Monday that she flew into the country to celebrate her birthday and attend a boat party, having met Nazir on a dating app and having previously travelled to the UK to meet him.
The defendant denies conspiracy to murder, possessing a self-loading pistol and a charge of fraudulently evading the prohibition on importing ammunition.
The court has heard Aslam and Nazir, who were jailed last year for their part in the assassination plot, were involved in a feud with Mr Ali’s father, Aslat Mahumad.
Nazir and Aslam, both of Elms Avenue in Derby, had been injured during disorder at Mr Mahumad’s clothing boutique in Birmingham in July 2018, jurors have been told, leading them to conspire to have someone kill him or a member of his family.
The trial continues.
