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Lawyers for victims of Hariri assassination says trial of alleged killers should end impunity

Associated Press
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A statue of slain former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is surrounded by candles lit by his supporters during a vigil, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014. Nearly nine years after a truck bomb killed Hariri and 22 others, the trial started Thursday for four Hezbollah suspects accused of plotting the assassination that turned a Beirut seaside street into a "man-made hell." (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) (The Associated Press)

A statue of slain former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is surrounded by candles lit by his supporters during a vigil in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014. Nearly nine years after a truck bomb killed Hariri and 22 others, the trial started Thursday for four Hezbollah suspects accused of plotting the assassination that turned a Beirut seaside street into a "man-made hell." (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) (The Associated Press)

A supporter of slain former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri lights candle during a vigil in front of Hariri's statue, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014. Nearly nine years after a truck bomb killed Hariri and 22 others, the trial started Thursday for four Hezbollah suspects accused of plotting the assassination that turned a Beirut seaside street into a "man-made hell." (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) (The Associated Press)

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.