Man to stand trial for fleeing after wife's hammer death

A HUSBAND accused of battering his wife to death with a hammer then attempting to flee the country is to stand trial in May.

Yahya Babiker, 45, denies charges of murder and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

It is alleged that he attacked his wife Randa Kamblawi, 34, in a house in Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, last October 19 or 20, repeatedly striking her on the head with a claw hammer.

A second charge alleges that in order to hamper any investigation he failed to notify authorities of the death, cleaned up the flat and dumped the body and blood-stained bedclothes in a bath of water. It is further alleged that after asking a relative to look after the children because his wife was ill, Babiker took a taxi to Edinburgh Airport and tried to buy a one-way ticket for Paris, eventually boarding a flight for London.

After a short hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday Babiker was remanded in custody pending trial on 10 May in Perth.