Saudi lawyer Batea Al-Shammari was shot while on holiday in Syria at a location some 45 km from Damascus. Batea was shot when he came to a window of the house he had rented to investigate some noise outside. He was shot five times by gunmen standing outside.

Neighbors confirmed the shooting. One of the shots entered Batea’s body, rupturing his spleen, breaking a rib and exiting through his back. The lawyer was taken to hospital where he has undergone surgery.

“Batea was targeted for no obvious reason as he had only been in Syria for 24 hours along with his wife and children to spend his holiday,” said his brother, Shafi Al-Shammari, adding that his brother has no enemies and is one to avoid arguments.

Police are still investigating the matter and have still not made any arrests. “It just does not make sense. If it were a robbery then why would somebody shoot, run away and not even try to steal something. Why didn’t they just run away? They could have, they were outside and he was inside,” said Shafi.

He also said there was at least two men outside as investigators found empty bullet shells from two different weapons outside — one from a 9mm revolver and the second from a Russian machine gun.

Batea’s family is now trying to transfer him to Riyadh with help of the Saudi Embassy in Damascus. “The embassy has been cooperative and has been closely following up on Batea’s condition as well as police investigations,” said Shafi.

He added that the shooting has been a traumatic experience for his entire family, as Batea is a respectful family man. He also said that this was his second visit to Syria.

Jeddi Al-Raqqas, head of citizens’ affairs at the Saudi Embassy in Syria, said Batea’s condition was stable last night and that the embassy is working closely with the Syrian authorities on the matter.