Kashif Anwar, 29, has been sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in jail for murdering his pregnant wife, Fawziyah Javed, by pushing her off a cliff at Arthur’s Seat, a beauty spot in Edinburgh. Ms Javed, who was 17 weeks pregnant, fell 50ft from a rocky outcrop during a holiday in September 2021. As she lay dying, she told a police officer that her husband had pushed her. Anwar claimed that he had slipped and bumped into his wife, but the jury at the High Court in Edinburgh rejected his defense and found him guilty of murder.
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Judge Lord Beckett told Anwar that his wife had been entitled to his protection and that he was guilty of a “wicked crime”. He said, “You showed no remorse and made no attempt to save her.” During the trial, the jury heard that Anwar and Ms Javed met when she accompanied her mother to buy new glasses. They began a relationship after meeting again soon after and tied the knot on Christmas Day in 2020. However, Ms Javed soon began to feel worried about Anwar’s behavior. Her mother gave evidence, saying she believed her daughter was in a violent, coercive marriage. Ms Javed had told her mother that she was contemplating leaving the relationship within a few months of marrying Anwar.
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Anwar and Ms Javed arrived in Edinburgh on 1 September 2021. Anwar told police officers that they had a lie-in until 10:00 the following day before having breakfast. They visited Harvey Nichols and Mulberry, and also went to music store FOPP and a couple of “Harry Potter” shops. They decided to visit Arthur’s Seat after dining at the food chain Wagamama’s. They arrived at the famous hill at about 19:30 and started climbing in order to see the sunset. But the pair arrived too late and decided to go back down the hill. It was then they decided to take a selfie on a rocky outcrop.
Anwar told police, “We were below the summit. I lost my balance and fell into her. I heard her go over the edge and say ‘oh my foot’ and she started screaming. I heard a thud.” Ms Javed had fallen 50ft down the cliff. Although she had a visible head injury, she was able to speak for a short time while she lay dying on the hillside. She told the first person to reach her, hillwalker Daniyah Rafique, not to let her husband near her and that he had pushed her. Police officer PC Rhiannon Clutton arrived at the scene and Ms. Javed told her that her husband had pushed her as she had tried to end the relationship. She then went into cardiac arrest and died at the scene from multiple injuries.
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During the trial, Anwar was heard in a phone recording with Ms Javed, calling him “a disrespectful person” and saying he was “horrible”. In the recording, she asked: “Which husband treats his wife the way you do?” Speaking on behalf of Ms Javed’s family after the hearing, Natasha Rattu, executive director of domestic abuse charity Karma Nirvana, said: “There will never be closure or justice for us. This is a lifetime of grief and pain. Our life sentence began the day our daughter was brutally murdered. She was the perfect daughter, granddaughter, niece, a friend and a mother-to-be – a successful lawyer who had the whole of her life ahead of her. Fawziyah has left the biggest void in our lives. The spark has gone out of our lives forever.”
