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Lawyers representing victims of the 2005 suicide truck bombing that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others say the trial in absentia of four suspects at a UN-backed tribunal could help break a cycle of impunity for political slayings in his country.

In an opening statement before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on the second day of the trial of four Hezbollah supporters accused of carrying out the deadly terror blast, lawyer Mohammad Mattar told judges their court "can restore the faith of the Lebanese people in justice."

Among nine victims in court Friday was Saad Hariri, whose father was the principal target of a huge suicide truck bombing on Feb. 14, 2005, on a seaside street in Beirut.