Tensions run high in Lebanon as Hariri trial opens The trial in absentia of four Hezbollah members accused of murdering former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri in 2005 opened at a UN-backed court on Thursday. The highly anticipated trial has been partially eclipsed by the conflict raging in neighbouring Syria and a spate of bombings in the country, with the latest hitting a Hezbollah bastion in the Bekaa Valley. Images of a ticker for justice in Beirut and of Lebanese watching the trial on TV at a cafe where Rafiq Hariri was a regular