Grandad of Arthur's Seat murder victim dies after keeping terminal cancer diagnosis secret
09.04.2023 - 11:15
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
The grandfather of a pregnant lawyer who was pushed to her death from Arthur's Seat did not tell his family he had terminal cancer because he didn't want to "divert attention" from her murder case - and died before her killer was jailed. Relatives called Abdul Latif, 70, their "leading investigator" as they fought to get justice for Fawziyah Javed, 31, who was murdered by Kashif Anwar, 29.
They said the grandad kept quiet about his terminal diagnosis until 48 hours before he died on November 1, because he didn't want to "divert attention" from the case. Fawziyah's uncle, Shahid Farouk, 53, said Abdul was present when his granddaughter's body was identified on her birthday, September 4, 2021, and his death had been a "huge blow" to the family.
And he said it was "devastating" he was unable to get the "closure" he had sought when Anwar was jailed for 20 years for Fawziyah's murder on Thursday, 6 April. Shahid added: "He was like our leading investigating officer. He was with us all the way. But he sadly died from cancer. And the worst thing about it was that he kept it inside him.
"Doctors were telling him, 'You must tell your family. You've not got long to live.' They gave him a year, but sadly he went within a couple of months.
"When we went to identify Fawziyah on September 4, we should have been celebrating her birthday, not going to a mortuary to identify her body, and Fawziyah's grandad went with us.
"The reason why he didn't want to tell anybody was that he knew the family was going through a lot of grief with Fawziyah's ongoing case, so he didn't want to trouble us and divert us to his attention. It wasn't until 48 hours, when his condition deteriorated a lot, that he actually told us.
"It's a huge blow for us, losing