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In the French city of Nice, on Nov. 4, in broad daylight, a 47-year-old Chechen national allegedly approached his ex-partner, the 39-year-old Larissa, and stabbed her numerous times in front of a number of apartment complexes.
Police say he surprised the woman from behind near her apartment on Avenue de la Méditerranée, stabbing her multiple times. When the 17-year-old daughter tried to save her mother, the man began stabbing her as well, leaving the young woman currently fighting for her life in hospital.
Police found the victim “very seriously injured after receiving several blows with a bladed weapon” and carried out first aid, said the Nice prosecutor Damien Martinelli, according to a press release.
During the brutal stabbing attack, the youngest sibling, a two-year-old girl, was in her mother’s arms and witnessed her mother being stabbed to death. The suspect was arrested shortly after the murder.
Remarkably, the man was already on trial three times for domestic violence, which all ended in acquittal, according to Nice Martin news outlet.
The area where the stabbing took place is Moulins, which features an extremely high proportion of immigrants, including a large Chechen community. Police have designated the zone a “sensitive area,” and the Chechen community is reportedly in “shock” about the killing.
The family of the victim, Larissa, also asked: “He stood trial three times! Where was the protection?”
Larissa’s friend told the press, however, that the insular Chechen community and the perpetrator’s family are also to blame.
“She was harassed by her husband’s family, and she felt enormous pressure from the community. She was afraid of revenge if she spoke out,” the friend told the press.
Imam Magamadov tried to mediate the marital conflict for three years, admitted that “he was aggressive, he wouldn’t listen.”
French social services are now responsible for the seven children, born between 2007 and 2023.
Mayor Christian Estrosi immediately reacted, posting to X about a “femicide” as well as a “terrible act which must be punished with extreme severity.”
Conservative politician Eric Ciotti wrote: “A true tragedy in Nice’s Moulins district: a mother is said to have been killed by her ex-partner with a bladed weapon, and her daughter seriously injured. I hope that all light will be shed quickly on this absolute tragedy and send all my thoughts to the victims.”
The case has much in common with another recent case from France, involving a shocking femicide case that rocked France to the point that the country’s justice minister admitted total failure of law enforcement to protect Inès Mecellem from murder. Mecellem was stabbed to death by an Afghan refugee, Habib, who was her former partner. Now, the 36-year-old Habib remains on the run after the brutal killing.
Remarkably, he was subject to six criminal complaints, which were filed by Mecellem all within six weeks of her death, yet police never took any serious action against the man, even releasing him from custody shortly before Mecellem’s murder.
The mother of the victim, Angélique, has been appearing across the national media, and has described the man who reportedly killed her daughter as “dangerous” and an “extremist” who “did not want to integrate.”
In fact, Habib openly praised the Taliban.
“He said the Taliban were heroes,” said the mother to Le Figaro newspaper. She added that he “intended to return to Afghanistan.”
The case also has many similarities with another case from Germany from just a few months ago. There, Iraqi migrant Ayad A. is accused of murdering his 37-year-old mother of seven, Laila A., whose children are aged six to 16, on May 12, which also happened to be the same date as their 16th wedding anniversary.
The event, which occurred in the middle of a residential area in Varel, Lower Saxony, is being prosecuted as malicious murder. The last words a witness heard Laila’s eldest daughter say were: “Daddy’s just left.” Seconds later, Laila was dead.
A Swiss-Tunisian scholar and political Islam activist, Saïda Keller-Messahli, addressed the topic of femicide and immigration from Middle Eastern and North African countries earlier this year. After Switzerland reported a surge in domestic murders, with 15 femicides recorded in the first half of 2025, she wrote in a commentary for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung that offenders disproportionately often come from Muslim countries and that the role of Islam in shaping attitudes toward women must be openly acknowledged.
“Reports of men killing their wives, ex-partners, or daughters because they don’t behave as they wish are increasing,” she noted.
She cited research by forensic scientist Frank Urbaniok showing that Afghans are reported for serious violent crimes five times more often than Swiss citizens, Moroccans eight times more often, and Tunisians nine times more often.
