[JURIST] Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] knows that a death sentence awaits him at the end of his trial {JURIST news archive] before the Iraqi High Tribunal for alleged crimes against humanity, but his lawyer says Hussein believes the US will use his sentence as leverage to persuade him to end the Sunni insurgency and to "save it from its mess" in Iraq, the New York Times reported Sunday. Lead defense counsel Khalil al-Dulaimi made the statement in an interview just days after Hussein's short-lived hunger strike [JURIST report] in protest of the murder [JURIST report] of another one of his defense lawyers last week.

The defense is scheduled to begin its closing arguments on July 10. Hussein and his seven co-defendants are charged [JURIST report] with killing, torturing and illegally detaining Dujail residents and for committing other inhumane acts in response to an alleged 1982 assassination attempt on Hussein. The New York Times has more.