Zimbabwe official: US dentist not wanted for killing Cecil the lion | Inquirer News

Zimbabwe official: US dentist not wanted for killing Cecil the lion

/ 08:53 AM October 13, 2015

Walter Palmer

In this Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015 file photo dentist Walter Palmer, arrives back at his office following a lunch break in Bloomington, Minn. A Zimbabwe Cabinet minister said Monday Oct. 12, 2015 that the country is no longer pressing for Palmer’s extradition following the hunting and killing a well-known lion called Cecil. AP FILE PHOTO

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe is no longer pressing for the extradition of James Walter Palmer, an American dentist who killed a well-known lion called Cecil, a Cabinet minister said Monday.

Palmer can now safely return to Zimbabwe as a “tourist” because he had not broken the southern African country’s hunting laws, Environment, Water and Climate Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri told reporters in Harare on Monday. Zimbabwe’s police and the National Prosecuting Authority had cleared Palmer of wrongdoing, she said.

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Through an adviser, Palmer declined comment.

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READ: US man accused in African lion death thought hunt was legal | US hunter tied to Cecil the lion killing headed back to work

Palmer was identified as the man who killed Cecil in a bow hunt. Cecil, a resident of Hwange National park in western Zimbabwe, was well-known to tourists and researchers for his distinctive black mane.

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Muchinguri-Kashiri had said in July that Zimbabwean police and prosecutors would work to get Palmer returned to Zimbabwe to face poaching charges.

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On Monday, she told reporters in Harare that Palmer can now safely return to Zimbabwe as a “tourist” because he had not broken this wildlife-rich southern African country’s hunting laws.

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“He is free to come, not for hunting, but as a tourist,” Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri told reporters. “It turned out that Palmer came to Zimbabwe because all the papers were in order.”

Palmer was the subject of extradition talk in Zimbabwe and a target of protests in the United States, particularly in Minnesota, where he has a dental practice, after he was identified as the man who killed Cecil the lion in a bow hunt. Cecil roamed in Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe.

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Messages left Monday with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which was handling a US investigation into Palmer, weren’t immediately returned.

Theo Bronkhorst, a Zimbabwean professional hunter who was a guide for Palmer, returned to court last week on charges of allowing an illegal hunt. His lawyer Perpetua Dube argued that the charges are too vague and should be dropped.

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Cecil, Zimbabwe’s majestic lion, remembered

TAGS: Africa, American, charges, Dentist, hunt, Killing, Zimbabwe

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