5 January – The International Court of Justice rule William Beggs, the main suspect in connection to the murder of Barry Wallace who went missing in December 1999 and whose body parts were later discovered in Loch Lomond and Troon, be extradited to Scotland to face trial in connection with the murder of Wallace.[1]
9 January – William Beggs is extradited back to Scotland. He arrives at Edinburgh Airport and is arrested by Scottish police.[1]
11 January – William Beggs appears at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court where he makes no plea or declaration in relation to the murder of Barry Wallace in December 1999.[1]
31 January – the Scottish Court in the Netherlands convicts a Libyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed in Lockerbie in 1988. Lamin Khalifah Fhimah (aged 44) is cleared, but Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment (which will take place in Scotland) with a recommended minimum term of twenty years. Megrahi was released from prison on compassionate grounds in 2009; as doctors reported he had terminal prostate cancer, and he died on 20 May 2012, aged sixty.[2]
March – first natural gas production from the Elgin–Franklin fields in the North Sea.
12 October – William Beggs, the man accused of the mutilation and murder of Barry Wallace in 1999, is sentenced at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh and imprisoned for life.[8] He is convicted of handcuffing, injuring, sexually assaulting and murdering Barry Wallace before dismembering his body in December 1999.[1]
