A pregnant woman allegedly murdered when her husband pushed her off Arthur’s Seat had a fear of heights and was reluctant to visit the landmark, a court has heard.
Fawziyah Javed, 31, made the comment to a friend just weeks before she fell to her death from the steep hill in Edinburgh, killing her and her unborn child, jurors were told.
Kashif Anwar, 29, denies murdering his wife in September 2021 by pushing her from the landmark, along with a charge of acting in a threatening and abusive way towards her at a hotel in the city the day before the alleged murder.
Lubna Qasim, who gave evidence on Friday on the third day of the trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, said her friend Ms Javed told her that Anwar was “really keen on visiting Arthur’s Seat”.
But Ms Javed looked Ms Qasim, 33, straight in the eyes and told her: “I’m not so sure”, the court heard.
The conversation happened during a Walima – a Muslim marriage celebration event – held for the couple on 30 August 2021. Ms Qasim told the court that at the event Ms Javed’s mother, Nighat Yasmin Javed, had seemed “anxious and nervous and stressed”.
Ms Qasim, who described Ms Javed as “caring, generous and kind”, also told the court she had known her friend was scared of heights after they had previously visited a cable car together in the Spanish city of Barcelona.
She said Ms Javed, from Pudsey in Leeds, seemed more interested in things like shopping than walking.
Ian Duguid KC, for Anwar, told the court a relative of his client had mentioned Arthur’s Seat to him as a place to visit while in Edinburgh. He said Ms Javed had also been keen on walking in the Yorkshire Dales.
Accused ‘threatened to ruin wife’s life’
Meanwhile the jury was also told that Ms Javed had previously called the police about Anwar’s alleged behaviour.
When officers from West Yorkshire Police attended her parents’ home in April 2021 she gave a statement detailing abuse claims.
PC Gemma Smales, 34, read out the document from Ms Javed, which included the line: “I may be his wife but I’m not his possession.”
In the statement, Ms Javed said her husband had threatened to physically hurt her family members if she ever cheated on him, and that she had found herself unconscious in a Pudsey graveyard.
Ms Javed further alleged she was slapped across the face by her husband in an argument and that he had used abusive language, including calling her a “b****”.
The court heard she had also claimed her husband had once ordered her to “stop behaving like a British woman”, threatened to pull her mother’s “tongue out if she says I need help”, and warned he would “ruin” Ms Javed’s life if she ever ended the relationship.
The court was told Anwar, who was studying optometry at the University of Bradford, began the relationship with Ms Javed after a chance meeting at the Trinity shopping complex in Leeds city centre.
The trial continues.
