5 January – TheInternational 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 inLoch Lomond andTroon, 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 atEdinburgh Airport and is arrested by Scottish police.[1]
11 January – William Beggs appears atKilmarnock Sheriff Court where he makes no plea or declaration in relation to the murder of Barry Wallace in December 1999.[1]
31 January – theScottish Court in the Netherlands convicts aLibyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing ofPan Am Flight 103 which crashed inLockerbie in 1988.Lamin Khalifah Fhimah (aged 44) is cleared, butAbdelbaset 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 theElgin–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 theHigh Court of Justiciary inEdinburgh 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]
