Cecil the lion: Zimbabwe will not charge US dentist over killing

Zimbabwean environment minister says Walter Palmer’s big-game hunting trip was legal and he could not be charged 

Another lion with a bow and arrow by the American dentist Walter Palmer, left, with the help of Theo Bronkhorst, a professional hunter. Photograph: Rex Shutterstock

Reuters in Harare

Monday 12 October 2015 

Zimbabwe will not charge American dentist Walter Palmer for killing a prized lion in July because he had obtained legal authority to conduct the hunt, a cabinet minister has said.

“We approached the police and then the prosecutor general, and it turned out that Palmer came to Zimbabwe because all the papers were in order,” the environment minister, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, told reporters, adding that the American could not be charged.

Palmer, from Minnesota, has always maintained that he believes he acted legally. Last month he told the Associated Press and the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he was stunned to find out his hunting party had killed one of Zimbabwe’s treasured animals.

 

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