BLEEDING out on the car seat and close to death, Anisah Ahmed may have wondered if she had finally taken her evil campaign of revenge too far.
The young lawyer had slashed a deep, six-inch gash across her own leg in a bid to frame her ex-lover, barrister Iqbal Mohammed, in a fake stabbing and kidnap plot.
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She hatched the twisted plan — which also included false rape allegations — after learning Iqbal, who she had been having a fling with for some nine months, was married.
Now, in a devastating blow to her victim, The Sun can reveal that Ahmed is back on the streets after being freed from prison.
The Ministry of Justice confirmed she recently got out under a home detention curfew, meaning she must wear an electronic tag and can only leave the house at certain times.
Iqbal, 41, had no idea until The Sun broke the news to him.
Slamming the “disgraceful” decision in an exclusive interview, he said: “I can’t believe nobody bothered to bloody tell me this before. It’s unbelievable. I’ve been completely left in the dark.”
Ahmed’s sinister actions — which left Iqbal feeling suicidal — echoed scenes from 1988 psychological thriller Fatal Attraction, in which Glenn Close’s character Alex stalks and terrorises attorney Dan, played by Michael Douglas, his wife and child after a one-night stand.
Iqbal said: “I watched the movie again after all of this happened and I found it too real, too close to home, I knew that obsessive, psychotic behaviour.”
At first, Ahmed was given a life sentence in April 2021 after a judge branded her behaviour “malicious, even evil” and suggested she may not be rehabilitated. But it was reduced to ten years on appeal.
She was also given a lifetime restriction order banning her from going near Iqbal.
But he said: “I don’t feel safe at all. I feel we’ve been completely let down and it’s completely disgraceful that this can happen.
“I’m extremely worried and dreading telling my wife because I think she’ll be really, really scared.
“I am lucky The Sun looked into this because, otherwise, the first time I could have found out was when she turned up outside my house.”
Ahmed’s attempt to destroy Iqbal began in 2014, when she discovered through social media that he was married.
She exposed their affair and sent messages to his wife, family, colleagues, friends and head of chambers.
He reported her to cops and she, in turn, was sent a harassment warning letter.
But scorned Ahmed, from Oxford, conspired to get her own back by alleging Iqbal was the one hassling her.
‘No strings attached’
To prove her lies, she wrote fake emails making threats against herself, claiming they had come from her ex-lover lover.
Ahead of new ITV1 documentary The Real Fatal Attraction, which looks back at the disturbing case, Iqbal tells how, before Ahmed’s guilty plea in 2019, he and his wife Lubna lived in fear of her threats, including that she would throw acid in their faces.
They changed their cars, moved house and altered their typical routines to protect themselves.
“My biggest worry was that she was going to stab me or my wife,” Iqbal said.
“Whenever I went into work, and when I left the house, I would look around to make sure she wasn’t lurking around. It became instinctive.
“If someone’s prepared to stab their leg with a knife — and that cut must have been really painful — what else are they prepared to do? Part of my fear was also what would she do to herself and blame me for? Her idea was no one would accuse me of doing this to myself because that’s insane, crazy, so it must be Iqbal.”
I really wanted to die because what can you do when people believe something so completely bonkers and made up?
Iqbal Mohammed
It is believed that Ahmed, now 37, first contacted Iqbal from Birmingham, after watching him on the 2008 BBC docuseries The Barristers.
She sent him her CV and asked for career advice via email and LinkedIn. But by late 2013, their relationship had turned flirty.
Iqbal described being “overwhelmed by the attention” and admitted things soon became sexual.
“It was intended to be fun, no commitments, no strings attached, but then something went wrong . . . Anisah discovered I was married,” Iqbal told the ITV documentary.
Ahmed was “really furious” after finding a photo of Iqbal and his wife together on Facebook in late 2014 and a deluge of threats followed, including to attack Lubna.
In a message to Iqbal’s colleague, Ahmed said: “I’m not going to tolerate this.”
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She also sent conversations between herself and Iqbal to Lubna, her mum and uncle, his little sister and cousin.
Iqbal said of his infidelity: “I don’t blame Anisah, I’m not pretending she made me do it or she chased me. No, it was my decision. I own that.
“I felt devastated I’d been that callous towards someone I love. The deception of it. I made my bed and I lay in it. Lubna left.”
But Iqbal could never have predicted how Ahmed would react.
He was “scared” of her because her “agenda was pure revenge as she tried to destroy me”.
After multiple threats and a barrage of expletives, Iqbal contacted the police, concerned that his former lover would carry out her threats, in January 2015.
She pulled a knife out of her pocket. I said, ‘I don’t want it, if you die here how am I going to prove my innocence? No one’s going to believe me
Iqbal Mohammed
Detective Sergeant Lee Bennett recalls warning Ahmed that her actions could constitute harassment, but conceded it only seemed to “inflame the situation”.
She would soon forge emails, appearing to come from Iqbal’s work account, which included a vow to leak intimate photos of her.
Ahmed filed a non-molestation order against the barrister, which saw him suspended from work pending an internal probe.
And ramping up her campaign, she claimed to cops he had raped her.
In June 2015, Iqbal was arrested at his chambers over the allegations and spent seven hours in a police cell.
“It was only then that I realised, ‘Oh, my God, someone might believe her’,” he told us.
I watched the movie again after all of this happened and I found it too real, too close to home, I knew that obsessive, psychotic behaviour
Iqbal Mohammed
“I really wanted to die because what can you do when people believe something so completely bonkers and made up?
“It was really traumatic being in that cell. It felt like the longest time ever. I knew I could be in a cell like this for many years if a jury accepted what she was saying.”
Broken by the false allegations, losing his wife — who later returned to him — and potentially being disbarred, he even considered hanging himself. But after being bailed, Iqbal found new strength.
He went on to give cops a 350-page dossier to disprove Ahmed’s claims.
It included messages he believed “completely blew her story apart”.
Meanwhile, Ahmed’s chilling behaviour was escalating.
The fake messages she sent to herself were becoming increasingly violent and included a fake kidnap threat, which she carried out in July 2015, to make it appear as if Iqbal had hired a hitman to kill her.
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‘Cried like a baby’
In fact, she had enlisted another ex, Mustafa Hussain, to aid her attempt to set him up.
Ahmed would tell cops she was forced to drive from her home to a village outside Oxford, where she was made to email Swindon CID to say she was retracting her statements.
She then claimed the kidnapper stabbed her in the leg — leaving a gaping wound that risked her bleeding to death. But her story did not add up.
Cops found no blood in the 500-metre radius of the “crime scene”.
It was only inside Ahmed’s car, and CCTV footage revealed the vehicle she was “forced” to follow belonged to Hussain.
He told police she tried to make him stab her, revealing: “She pulled a knife out of her pocket. I said, ‘I don’t want it, if you die here how am I going to prove my innocence? No one’s going to believe me’.
“From there, she had a little tantrum, ‘I knew you were going to ruin this’. That makes me think she’s a crazy ass person.”
Meanwhile, Iqbal’s employers finished their investigation. An expert in forensic analysis of computers proved that no emails “ever originated” from his account at work.
In November 2015, Ahmed, who was disbarred over another matter, was arrested and charged.
She was sentenced in April 2021 after pleading guilty to perverting and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
“When I say I cried, I cried like a baby,” Iqbal said. “Before, I’d put on a brave face and suddenly it all came out.”
Reflecting on Ahmed’s sentence, which was reduced in 2021, DS Kevin Parsons, from Oxford CID, told the documentary: “The judge thought she was a danger to the public and didn’t think that would change. My opinion is he was right.”
It’s not just a question of her being out, but the high chance of her not being rehabilitated and the high chance of her wanting revenge. I’m worried she could turn up at my work or my house
Iqbal Mohammed
Iqbal added: “He thought she could not safely be released. He felt that she was such a danger that he had to put her in prison for life.
“It’s not just a question of her being out, but the high chance of her not being rehabilitated and the high chance of her wanting revenge. I’m worried she could turn up at my work or my house. When I go to court, she could be outside court. It’s the fear of not knowing.”
Iqbal has now taken extra security measures, but still fears he and Lubna could be at risk.
He said: “There should be a law that requires them to tell victims this information.”
Iqbal added: “My issue is not that she should be in prison longer because I dislike her, or I want her to be punished. It is that that was the time they felt she needed to be rehabilitated
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“And now, I’m scared that that time has not been given to her to allow her to do that.”
- The Real Fatal Attraction airs at 9pm on Wednesday on ITV1, and is available to stream afterwards on ITVX.
