Late European throttled by deadly criminal (7)
I believe the answer is:
delayed
'late' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'european throttled by deadly criminal' is the wordplay.
'european' becomes 'E' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'throttled by' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters get throttled or smothered).
'criminal' indicates an anagram.
'deadly' with letters rearranged gives 'dlayed'.
'e' inserted within 'dlayed' is 'DELAYED'.
(Other definitions for delayed that I've seen before include "Made late" , "Caused to be held up" , "Put back" , "Shelved" , "Held up, back" .)