Fawziyah Javed’s dying words helped put her abusive husband behind bars. The 31-year-old lawyer, who was 17 weeks pregnant, tragically died at Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh on September 2, 2021, after Kashif Anwar, 29, forced her off the cliff face....CONTINUE READING
He claimed his wife slipped and fell in an accident on the hillside, but prosecutors and the jury were able to expose her husband’s lies at a trial in April 2023.
Anwar was convicted of killing Fawziyah and has been jailed for 20 years. Tonight, a two-part documentary on Channel 4, titledThe Push: Murder on the Cliff, follows the tragic death of the expectant mum and how her case unraveled in court.
Lead prosecutor Alex Prentice KC said a “great deal of evidence” collected by Fawziyah was crucial in securing a conviction. The lawyer was 17 weeks pregnant when she tragically died.
She told a passerby that her husband had pushed her off the cliff. Of the lawyer’s final words, Mr Prentice said: “The evidence of what Fawziyah said was crucial.
It was effectively Fawziyah speaking to the jury. I have prosecuted many murder cases over the course of my career but for a variety of reasons this case is extraordinary.” He said it would have been “very difficult” to find Anwar guilty without the evidence.
After Fawziyah landed on the side of Arthur’s Seat, witnesses rushed to her aid and she was able to tell them what had happened to her. While she lay critically injured, the lawyer told passerby Daniyah Rafique, 24: “Don’t let my husband near me, he pushed me.” She died a short time later.
Brave Fawziyah had spent months building evidence against him. She had secretly recorded phone calls of Anwar threatening her and went to West Yorkshire Police twice to record his abusive behaviour.
One harrowing account told how Anwar held a pillow over her face and punched it repeatedly. In another incident, she was left bleeding and unconscious.
Fawziyah was so afraid of her husband’s reaction to her reporting of his behaviour that she asked the police not to pursue an investigation, but to hold the details on file in case she needed them in the future.
Scotland’s Procurator Fiscal for Homicide and Major Crime, David Green, said Fawziyah’s bravery in reporting the abuse helped convict her husband.
He said: “This young woman was being degraded and controlled by her husband, but she found the strength to place on record what was going on. Her own words – which were recorded by West Yorkshire Police – helped us prosecutors show that the tragedy on Arthur’s Seat was the terrible culmination of a campaign of abuse.”
Kashif Anwar was found guilty of murdering his wife and convicted to 20 years CCTV showed Fawziyah following Anwar up to Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh A friend of Fawziyah, known only as Ingrid, said: “She built this massive mountain of evidence culminating with giving a statement to the police on the verge of her dying.
The fact she was a lawyer with all the legal training, I do think she must have thought about leaving this evidence behind. I remember feeling like she died like a lawyer.”
The couple had travelled to the Scottish capital for what Anwar described as a ‘mini-moon’. Chilling CCTV showed Anwar leading Fawziyah up to the hill and then they took selfies at the top shortly after 8pm. Calls were made from Fawziyah’s phone to her father and Anwar’s father around 9.20pm, shortly before Fawziyah was pushed off the edge.
Anwar spoke to a 999 operator and said: “Fawziyah’s just on the edge of the cliff, man. We both just slipped, I tried grabbing her arm and she fell.
We both technically slipped and then I tried grabbing her arm and she went sideways.” A firefighter sent to help rescue Fawziyah claims Anwar told him that his wife slipped as he bumped into her trying to get a selfie.
Firefighter Sean Stratford, who gave evidence to the High Court in Edinburgh, told jurors: “He said that he stood up to take a selfie, he slipped and bumped her and she had fallen.” He said Anwar seemed to be “calm” as he spoke with him at the scene.
Anwar was then taken to Gayfield Square police station and around 12.45am the next day, was told of her death. The officer said: “There wasn’t much of a reaction, in my opinion, he didn’t say much to it and didn’t have any obvious physical reaction…CONTINUE READING>>
