Accused cat in lair died (9)
I believe the answer is:
denounced
'accused' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'cat in lair died' is the wordplay.
'cat' becomes 'ounce' (ounce can mean a snow leopard).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'lair' becomes 'den' (synonyms).
'died' becomes 'd' (abbreviation next to the year of someone's death).
'den'+'d'='dend'
'ounce' put inside 'dend' is 'DENOUNCED'.
(Other definitions for denounced that I've seen before include "Publicly condemned" , "Condemned openly" .)