A murderer who pushed his pregnant wife to her death from Arthur’s Seat has abandoned an appeal bid.
Kashif Anwar was given a life sentence earlier this year and told he’d have to serve at least 20 years in jail for taking the life of mum to-be Fawziyah Javed on their Edinburgh “mini-moon” just nine months after they married in 2021.
The 29-year-old instructed lawyers to go to the Court of Criminal Appeal, with officials confirming he had lodged an intention to appeal against his conviction and sentence.
But no notice of appeal has been filled by Anwar’s legal team ahead of this week’s deadline.
Fawziyah’s heartbroken mum Yasmin Javed previously told the Record of her torment over the killer’s appeal plans saying she believes “cruel and evil” Anwar will never accept his punishment.
Fawziyah, from Leeds, was two days away from leaving violent Anwar when he shoved her to her death at the Edinburgh landmark.
The brave employment lawyer had carefully plotted an escape plan but was unable to carry it out before Anwar killed her.
The couple had checked into a hotel in Edinburgh on August 31 and were to return to Yorkshire on September 4, which would have been Fawziyah’s 32nd birthday.
The trial heard she planned not to return to Anwar’s home but to go to her parents’ house and contact police to retrieve her belongings.
On September 2, she was pushed to her death at Holyrood Park.
Chilling CCTV images revealed the pair’s movements as Anwar led his wife to Arthur’s Seat.
The measures Fawziyah took helped secure Anwar’s conviction at the High Court in Edinburgh in April and expose his web of lies and history of abuse.
Fawziyah, who was 17 weeks pregnant, had previously lodged reports with police on the abuse she suffered.
She managed to identify her husband as her attacker as she lay dying, having suffered multiple blunt force injuries plunging 50ft from the hill in September 2021.
Anwar’s trial heard Fawziyah told Daniyah Rafique, who went to her aid: “Don’t let my husband near me, he pushed me.” And Ms Rafique, 24, also said she asked her: “Am I going to die? Is my baby going to die?”
Speaking in a TV interview, mum Yasmin said: “The words go round around my head every day.
“Alongside the grief and pain, I can’t get them out of my mind.”
Yasmin has also spoken out on the abuse her daughter suffered, saying Anwar’s motives for murdering her stemmed from honour-based control, jealousy, and insecurity because he would not allow her a divorce.
Secret recordings Fawziyah made before her death reveal her husband telling her: “Don’t challenge me, do not be that British woman.”
Scottish Court and Tribunal Service officials confirmed that Anwar had lodged an intention to appeal and been granted an extension until this week but it is understood his legal team is no longer seeking to appeal.
In future he could make an application to the Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission to review his case or seek to take it to the UK Supreme Court.
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