RIYADH: An Asian worker was stabbed to death for a laptop by a group of robbers in the capital last week.

A diplomat from the Sri Lankan Embassy confirmed 39-year-old Mohammed Azwer’s death to Arab News on Friday. The victim was a domestic aide working for a prince in his palace in the city.

The attack happened after Azwer came out of his apartment with his laptop to get better wireless reception so he could access the Internet.

Three men reportedly tried to snatch the laptop from Azwer, who fought back.

“One of the three stabbed him in his stomach during the scuffle, the others grabbed the laptop and they all ran from the scene of crime,” the official said. Azwer immediately called the prince to tell him what had happened. An ambulance was called to take him to the nearest hospital in Ummul Hammam, where he died 22 hours later.

The diplomat added that initial medical reports indicated that Azwer died of “natural causes.”

The prince then complained to police that he had seen the victim lying injured after he had been stabbed. According to sources, there were stab injuries on Azwer’s stomach and legs. Police had launched a widespread search for the three men involved in the murder.

The diplomat said that the hospital in the Riyadh Medical Complex had conducted a post-mortem on Wednesday. He added that the embassy is awaiting the final report. “The body is lying in the morgue at Semesi Hospital. We have also informed his family through the Foreign Ministry in Colombo,” he said.

Azwer hailed from Avisawella, a township close to Ratnepura, a city famous for gem mines some 90 km from Colombo.

The victim was married and had children in Avisawella. He had been in the Kingdom for the past four years and was preparing to go home for vacation during the holy month of Ramadan.

Last year, the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh reported 103 deaths among the community, most of them due to traffic accidents and natural causes. “Murder victims and suicide cases were minimal,” an official there said.

During the first half of 2010, he said there were 64 death cases and 34 bodies repatriated to Colombo.

The Kingdom has around 550,000 Sri Lankan workers, the largest concentration of the country’s workers in the Middle East. Remittances from its overseas workers form the second largest revenue earner for Sri Lanka.