A man arrested for the murder of Larisa Arsanukaeva in Nice was found dead in his cell.

Chechnya native Bashir Alibiyev, arrested in France after the murder of his ex-wife, Larisa Arsanukayeva, died in a detention cell. Sources have ruled his death a suicide, although relatives claim cardiac arrest.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," French media reported on November 4th that Chechen woman Larisa Arsanukayeva was murdered in Nice. The 39-year-old woman died from multiple stab wounds. Her 17-year-old daughter, who tried to protect her, was also seriously injured during the attack. Arsanukayeva's ex-husband, Bashir Alibiyev, has been arrested in connection with the murder. He entered the apartment where Larisa was staying with her two daughters by making duplicate keys. In 2023, a court ordered him to stay away from his ex-wife due to domestic violence, but the ban expired in 2024. Arsanukayeva was buried in Chechnya in early January; her body was only sent home on January 5, two months after the murder, because her husband's relatives did not sign the necessary burial documents, human rights activists stated.

Bashir Alibiyev, who was accused of murdering his ex-wife and assaulting their 17-year-old daughter, was found dead in his cell. There are indications that he committed suicide shortly after a confrontation with his daughter, the podcast "Freedom (Is) Not Far Away" reported today.

"Earlier in his testimony, he tried to shift the blame onto her, claiming that the girl allegedly attacked her mother, and that he was trying to protect her," the publication stated.

A man of Chechen origin, accused of murder and attempted murder, died on February 11 in a prison in the French city of Grasse, where he was being held, local prosecutor Eric Camus and Alibiyev's lawyer, Paul Sollacaro, confirmed.

The prisoner's death is still under investigation; an autopsy, according to the prosecutor, revealed "no abnormalities." Sollacaro's lawyer noted that his client was in solitary confinement and under observation; he also recalled that the native of Chechnya "never admitted his guilt."

According to the lawyer, suicide is one of the possibilities being considered in the investigation. "The question of my client's mental state arose from the very beginning of the trial, but unfortunately it will remain unanswered, since an examination by a psychiatric expert appointed by the judge could not be carried out," Nice-Matin quoted him as saying today.

“According to the accused’s relatives, he died of cardiac arrest,” Heda Media writes today. The project notes that Larisa Arsanukayeva’s relatives “officially declared a blood feud against the killer even before her funeral.”

The tradition of blood feud, which developed under the tribal system to protect the honor and property of the clan, still functions as a relevant social mechanism in the North Caucasus. According to this custom, the relatives of the murdered person must take revenge on the killer or his family, according to the “Caucasian Knot” report “Blood Feud – How They Kill in the Caucasus Now.”