The Legal Representatives of the Victims at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon voiced on Friday their confidence that the tribunal would be able to achieve justice “that has long been missing in Lebanon.”

They said during their opening statements at the trial that it is “time to end terrorism in Lebanon and put the criminals on trial.”

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon held a second day of deliberations on Friday in the trial of four Hizbullah suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 14, 2005 assassination.

The STL held its first in absentia hearing at the Hague on Thursday.

The United States welcomed the start of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s trial for four Hizbullah members accused of the Feb. 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri.

“We have strongly supported the Tribunal’s efforts to hold accountable those responsible for destabilizing acts of violence in Lebanon,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement on Thursday.

The Hague - Naharnet Feature

It will be difficult on Hizbullah and its supporters to go on with the theory that Israel violated the telephone networks in Lebanon in an attempt to alter the data and point the accusation in the murder of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri away from the party's members and its prominent leaders after the extensive demonstration by Prosecution counsel Graeme Cameron during the opening session of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon trials in The Hague.

The Hague - Naharnet Exclusive

The opening session of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon trials witnessed a recollection of the bloody scenes of February 14, 2005, as the incidents of that day were demonstrated through pictures, videos and the oversized maquette of the crime scene which was placed in the middle of the courtroom.

The Hague - Naharnet Feature

Former General Security chief Jamil al-Sayyed did not succeed in attaining the goals he had set by attending the opening sessions of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is probing the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri.

The Hague - Naharnet Exclusive

From the very first minutes of the opening session of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon trials in The Hague, the strategies of the court's competing organs became evident.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri described on Thursday the launch of the trial of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon as an historic day for Lebanon.

He said from The Hague: “The course of justice will not halt and there is no point for some sides to continue gloating over their refusal to hand over the accused.”

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc stated on Thursday that it looks forward to the establishment of Iranian-Lebanese ties based on mutual respect to each country's people, lamenting that this has not yet happened.

It said after its weekly meeting: “Iranian support for Lebanon does not lies in diplomatic statements, but in ceasing to employ Hizbullah in the fighting in Syria.”

The in absentia trial of four Hizbullah members accused of murdering former Premier Rafik Hariri in February 2005 opened at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague on Thursday.

The February 14, 2005 seafront blast killed 22 people including Hariri and wounded 226, leading to the establishment by the U.N. Security Council of the STL in 2007.