The Special Tribunal for Lebanon continued on Thursday hearing the testimonies of various witnesses linked to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Witness Robyn Fraser, who had worked for the STL Office of Prosecution between August 2009 and August 2011, continued the testimony she had started on Wednesday.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon began for the first time on Wednesday to hear the testimonies of witnesses in the trial of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's February 2005 assassination.

The testimonies came after the STL prosecution, the lawyers for victims and defense attorneys of two suspects made their opening statements since the trial was launched last Thursday.

The political violence that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is confronting is the source of sharp divisions among the Lebanese, U.S. Ambassador to Beirut David Hale has said.

“I don't think that the Tribunal caused the divisions in Lebanon,” he told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published on Sunday.

The Hague - Naharnet Exclusive

The Prosecution of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Friday crowned its 2-day presentation about the outcome of investigations into the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri by unveiling the route taken by the booby-trapped truck, the hierarchy of the assassination squad and a series of elements that might lead to major surprises as the trial moves forward.

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.

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 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.