Relatives of those killed in one of the world’s worst terrorist attacks — the downed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 — are being urged to push federal officials to grant them full remote access to next year's criminal trial.
“Victims' families, like me, have been pressing seven different administrations to even help in the investigation,” Victoria Cummock told to reporters at her home in Miami on Friday.
After she lost her husband, John, in the bombing, Cummock founded the to preserve the memory of the dead and support their surviving relatives.
The New York-bound Pan Am flight exploded over Lockerbie less than an hour after takeoff from London on Dec. 21, 1988. Citizens from 21 countries were killed. Among the 190 Americans on board were 35 Syracuse University students flying home for Christmas after a semester abroad.
The Justice Department announced nearly two years ago that former Libyan intelligence officer had been taken into U.S. custody. Two other Libyan intelligence officials have been charged in the U.S. for their alleged involvement in the attack, but Mas’ud was the first defendant to appear in an American courtroom for prosecution.
“Now this is the first time that we're being allowed our day in court and there's no criminal courtroom big enough to hold all of us,” Cummock said. “But by law we're entitled to be there.”
Under U.S. law, the families are entitled to remote access to certain criminal court proceedings. Cummock and other victims had to push for that legislation video and audio access to federal court cases .
In January of this year, President Joe Biden specifically allowing victims some remote access in the federal Pan Am case.
But Cummock told reporters that the defense team in the case to be at remote viewing locations around the world, out of concern for jury and witness integrity.
Cummock argues that allowing victims access through personal devices could still be made secure and would place less of a burden on families.
“This outdated option places time-consuming hardships on victims to travel up to 100 miles round-trip a day,” she said.
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She plans to be in Washington D.C. to watch some of the proceedings, but understands that other older people like herself may not be able to regularly travel to do so.
And for younger people — like her children and grandchildren — traveling to watch the trial may not be feasible with work and family.
Further, not everyone is watching from the U.S.
“The people in the 21 different countries, it’s potentially occurring for them to go and view this in the middle of the night,” Cummock told reporters, urging victims to opt for virtual access on their personal devices.
“We really are asking the victims that if they use the FBI registration form, they say no to the government's offer of victims to observe daily court proceedings at remote sites around the world.”
Cummock told reporters that victims have to register by Oct. 9, and the criminal court judge is expected to rule on the trial accessibility and services by Oct. 16.
Over the decades of fighting for justice, Cummock said she’s glad that the U.S. is taking its own steps to prosecute the accused suspects. But she hopes the process is just for the victims, too.
“This will probably be their only chance to stand up, be counted, bear witness and partake in the adjudication of this crime against humanity that impacted us all.”
