ACTION REQUIRED: Secure Your Rights as a Living Crime Victim of the Pan Am 103 Terrorist Attack
Many of you may not realize that, as Lockerbie survivors of the Pan Am 103 bombing or first responders to the attack, you qualify as Living Crime Victims of the attack and have various rights that are guaranteed under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act of 2004. We recently learned that the legal definition of Pan Am 103 Living Crime Victims includes any individual who suffered direct or proximate harm as a result of the bombing.
Your Rights as a Living Crime Victim
Many of you may not realize that, as Lockerbie survivors of the Pan Am 103 bombing or first responders to the attack, you qualify as Living Crime Victims of the attack and have various rights that are guaranteed under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act of 2004. We recently learned that the legal definition of Pan Am 103 Living Crime Victims includes:
“Any individual:
(A) who suffered direct or proximate harm as a result of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 that occurred over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988, and was present at or near the scene of the bombing when it occurred, or immediately thereafter; or
(B) who is the spouse, legal guardian, parent, child, brother, sister, next of kin, or other relative of, or who is determined by the applicable district court of the United States to be an individual who possesses a relationship of similar significance to, an individual described in subparagraph (A) or an individual otherwise described in this subsection.”
This definition includes people who were in Lockerbie on the evening of December 21, 1988, or participated in the response efforts. If this applies to you, you are entitled to specific rights, including regular and timely access to briefings about case investigation and criminal trial information, court trial access, and restitution. These rights are supposed to be made without regard for your global geographical location.
In order to secure your rights, you need to register with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as a Living Crime Victim. Registration is easy: Click here to sign up for the DOJ’s Victim Notification System (VNS) to receive information about the upcoming trial proceedings and where you can declare your interest in personalized trial access.
For additional information, see the sections at the end of this email:
About the May 2025 U.S. Criminal Trial
Recent Efforts and Developments Regarding Your Rights to Trial Access.
Your Immediate Action Is Required
Right now, we are at a critical moment and need your help. You have the opportunity to affect the Court’s decision by exercising your rights and establishing yourself as a Living Victim of the Pan Am 103 attack.
In order to support and facilitate the DOJ prosecution’s effort to provide the Court with the most comprehensive list of Living Crime Victims, the PA103LL Foundation is reaching out to our extensive network.
Click on this registration link, where you can sign up for the Department of Justice’s Victim Notification System (VNS) to receive information about the upcoming trial proceedings and where you can declare your interest in personalized trial access.
Alternatively, contact the DOJ directly at usadc.panam103@usdoj.gov or by phone at (202) 252-7045. Please provide the following information:
- Your name
- Your contact information: mailing address, email address, and phone number
- Your relationship to a victim
- Your location in/near Lockerbie during or immediately after the Pan Am 103 bombing
- Your role in the response to the bombing if you participated in the response
Whichever way you choose to declare your interest to the DOJ, it is urgent that they—or we—hear from you by Saturday, August 31. Even if you do not plan to view the trial, declaring your interest could help all Living Crime Victims receive direct, virtual trial access. Please share this information with other qualifying individuals. There is strength in numbers.
We are ready to support you and continue advocating for you. Do not allow the Court to rule without hearing from you. We implore you to give voice to the victims of Pan Am flight 103 and bear witness to justice.
In unanimity,
M. Victoria Cummock
Widow of Passenger John B. Cummock
Founder and CEO
Pan Am 103 Lockerbie Legacy Foundation
V.Cummock@PA103LL.org
Paul S. Hudson
Father of Passenger Melina Hudson
Board of Directors Member
Pan Am 103 Lockerbie Legacy Foundation
PSHudson@Yahoo.com
About the May 2025 U.S. Criminal Trial
You may know that the trial of alleged bombmaker Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi is scheduled to begin in Washington, D.C., on May 12, 2025. This trial is the first—and probably the last—opportunity for the DOJ to adjudicate the mass murder of 270 innocent people on December 21, 1988.
On November 18, 2022, a Federal Grand Jury issued a 3-count indictment against Mas’ud. The criminal case, number 22-cr-392, was assigned to Judge Dabney L. Friedrich of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (the Court). The trial will occur in Courtroom 7 at E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse, located at 333 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., 20001.
The Court is required to identify the number of Living Crime Victims who desire physical accommodation at the criminal trial proceedings. No courtroom in any U.S. Courthouse, including Prettyman Courthouse, has the physical space to accommodate all who have a presumptive right to attend a criminal trial, including, in our case, hundreds of family members, survivors, responders, the accused’s supporters, the media, and the general public. In cases such as ours, where so many people are interested, attendees are routinely placed in court overflow rooms that often do not offer the privacy and reasonable protection that are allotted by law.
Recent Efforts and Developments Regarding Your Rights to Trial Access
In 2023, our Foundation pressed the U.S. Congress to draft and pass legislation that provides individualized, direct, remote trial access to Pan Am 103 Living Crime Victims on our personal computers. This form of access has never been easier to arrange, with Zoom and other technologies. It was extended to crime victims during the Covid-19 pandemic through the CARES Act, and has been extended to the victims of other terrorist attacks in the past. We, victims of Pan Am 103, deserve no less. Recognizing that less than 10 percent of U.S. Federal Legislation is ever signed into law, we labored to ensure that on January 26, 2024, President Biden signed Public Law 118-37, which guarantees this access to us.
Obligated to make “reasonable efforts” to enforce this new law, the Court in Washington, D.C., is currently weighing how to grant remote access to the proceedings. On May 31, DOJ prosecutors filed a court proposal that included advocate declarations by Victoria Cummock, Paul Hudson, Pamela Dix, Scottish Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, and Kara Weipz in support of individualized, direct, remote trial access via Zoom, a convenient arrangement that would allow us to view court proceedings in the privacy of our own homes.
However, on June 17, Mas’ud’s defense team filed a response that argues access should be limited to live feeds at dozens of U.S. Federal Courthouses and at U.S. Embassies and Consulates in other countries. To view the trial at one of these designated sites, hundreds of us would have to travel great distances, some crossing oceans and continents, at our own expense and endure, more publicly than if we log in through Zoom, a trial that is expected to last months.
The defense’s position is an outrage and a clear denial of our rights—rights for which we fought long and hard.
On June 24, the Court ordered the DOJ prosecution to identify and submit a total number of victims, including our geographical distribution, who desire remote access. We believe there are thousands of Living Crime Victims, a number that, if recognized by the Court, will convince the Court to grant personal remote access, rather than undertake the herculean task and related costs of staffing dozens of remote viewing sites worldwide.
For additional assistance, you can call PA103LL Foundation staff at (305) 665-6740, call or text toll-free with WhatsApp to (305) 775-1071, or reply to this email sent from info@PA103LL.org.
The Foundation
Your story is our history
Give voice to your unique story about how the December 21, 1988, terrorist attack against America impacted your life. Preserve your memories and legacy by helping to create the most extensive curated digital library of personal Pan Am 103 Lockerbie stories for our Historical Archives.
