The U.S. State Department has condemned the torture and murder of an Iraqi human rights lawyer by Islamic State militants.

In a statement released Friday, spokesperson Jen Psaki said Samira Salih al-Nuaimi was working to make the future brighter for Iraqis.

She said Islamic State killed al-Nuaimi and other women and girls in Iraq and Syria for refusing to abide by the groups “draconian efforts to strip them of their rights.” Psaki added that the terror group’s oppression of women and other gruesome tactics show it seeks to inflict violence and fear through its distortion of faith.

The U.N. envoy to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, also condemned the killing and said Islamic State showed a total disregard to human decency.

Al-Nuaimi was publicly executed in Mosul this week, five days after she was seized by Islamic State militants.

She was tried in one of the group’s courts and found guilty of abandoning Islam. Witnesses say she was taken by the militants after she posted Facebook comments that were critical of the group’s destruction of places of worship in Mosul.
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