The regulatory body that represents Ireland’s legal profession has condemned the apparent murder-for-hire of a Latvian mother of two as well as the death threats against her solicitor.

In a statement issued Nov. 21, the Law Society of Ireland noted that the threats against the unnamed solicitor were made before Saulīte was gunned down the night of Nov. 19 at her home north of Dublin. The solicitor had contacted the society several weeks before the murder.

“He made the Society aware that he was under armed Garda [the Irish police] protection because of death threats, which he had received resulting from the legal work he had undertaken on behalf of Baiba Saulīte,” the statements reads.

Saulīte was shot three times, in full view of two or three witnesses, by a man who then left the scene in an autombobile driven by another man. Her two children, ages 3 and 5, were asleep in the home. Saulīte, 28, was separated from her husband, a Lebanese named Hassan Hassan. He is serving a prison sentence for involvement in a stolen automobile scheme.

The murder investigation is ongoing, according to Irish media and the police. An international crime network may figure in the case, according to the Irish Independent, and may also be linked to an arson attack on the solicitor’s house.

“(A) threat to a solicitor, simply for doing his job expertly and fearlessly on behalf of his client, is a direct attack on the administration of justice and on the rule of law generally,” Ken Murphy, director general of the Law Society, said in the statement. “The thoughts and support of his profession are with him, and with the family of Baiba Saulīte, at this terrible time.”