A woman walking on Arthur’s Seat on the night a man is alleged to have pushed his wife off the hill claimed the alleged victim told her he had pushed her, a court has heard.
Kashif Anwar, 29, is accused of murdering Fawziyah Javed, 31, in September 2021 by pushing her from the hill, causing her multiple blunt force injuries and ultimately her death and that of her unborn child.
Anwar denies all the charges against him, including one of acting in a threatening and abusive way towards his wife at a hotel in Edinburgh the day before the alleged murder.
Giving evidence at the High Court in Edinburgh on Friday afternoon, witness Daniyah Rafique, 24, said she found Ms Javed on Arthur’s Seat on the evening of September 2 2021.
She said she was approached by Anwar, who she described as looking “panicked”.
The witness said Anwar told her his wife had fallen and he could not see her.
Ms Rafique told the court she made her way back down Arthur’s Seat with Anwar to try to find his wife.
Upon finding Ms Javed, Ms Rafique said Ms Javed asked her: “Am I going to be OK? Is my baby going to be OK?”
Ms Rafique told the court she reassured Ms Javed and told her emergency services were on their way.
Ms Rafique said: “She said she was really scared.
“She kept saying: don’t let my husband near me, he pushed me.
“I said this to her a few more times: ‘He pushed you?'”
To which she said “Yes, I think so,” Ms Rafique said.
Following this, Ms Rafique said two police officers approached her along with two others.
Police Constable Rhiannon Clutton, 35, was one of the police officers who attended the night Ms Javed is alleged to have been murdered by her husband.
Ms Clutton said she found Ms Javed “writhing in pain” with an obvious injury to the head but told the court “she could still speak”.
Ms Clutton told the court: “I asked her what had happened.”
Prosecutor Alex Prentice KC then asked Ms Clutton what her response was.
“She said ‘He pushed me’,” Ms Clutton told the court.
“I asked her who had pushed her and why.”
The court heard that Ms Javed told Ms Clutton: “My husband because I told him I wanted to end it.”
Ms Clutton told the court Ms Javed had meant she wanted to end the relationship.
The officer said she asked Ms Javed if she had previously spoken to the police about him and Ms Javed said she had “at home in Leeds”.
“She asked me why he was like that and she asked me to keep him away from her.”
The court also heard how Ms Javed repeatedly asked for water and “if she was going to die” and if her baby “was going to die”.
Ms Javed’s condition deteriorated further when the fire service joined the rescue operation.
Following this, Ms Clutton said Ms Javed became “unresponsive” and that is when CPR commenced.
She was then pronounced dead at around 10.18pm on September 2.
The court also heard from Samuel Mackeddie, who advised the couple on the best route to take to the top of Arthur’s Seat on September 2.
He told the court they seemed like “quite a nice couple” but that he contacted the police “immediately” when he saw Ms Javed’s face on the front of a newspaper the following day.
Anwar denies all the charges.
The trial, before Lord Beckett, continues.
