No, that would have been trouble.
Rescue attempts. Hostage bargaining.
Most importantly, though, is the politics of thugocracy. If the leader is alive but incommunicado, his followers often take it upon themselves to follow what they think his orders would have been, in the hope/fear that he will return and reward/punish them. Often, the shadow is even worse than the real thing.
{Perverse meditation about a certain avatar's other followers deleted.}
No, this type of ruler has to be killed, and in a brutal and unmistakable fashion. Despite the fact that killing is wrong. The moral thing to do is to refrain from appointing and arming and defending bastards in the first place.
Nikki Mac reccomends, when liberating a town from your pet despot you gave the town to, slicing him in half and placing both halves and the knife on display in the town square. Nikki Mac also says a leader has no right to personal morality.