JOHANNESBURG — The government of Zimbabwe said Monday that it would not call for the extradition of a U.S. dentist involved in the hunt that killed a lion known as Cecil because he had the proper documentation for the hunt.
Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, Zimbabwe's environment minister, told reporters that the U.S. hunter, Dr. Walter J. Palmer of Minnesota, would not be charged in the killing of the 13-year-old lion in July outside Hwange National Park in northwestern Zimbabwe.
"He is free to come, not for hunting, but as a tourist," Muchinguri-Kashiri said, according to Reuters.
In a news conference in July, Muchinguri-Kashiri described Palmer as a "foreign poacher" who had broken Zimbabwe's laws. Zimbabwean officials initially said that Palmer and a professional hunting guide from Zimbabwe had illegally lured the lion out of its protected habitat onto a neighboring farm.
After looking into the circumstances of the hunt, Zimbabwe's authorities did not make a formal extradition request by a deadline last month.
Palmer, an experienced big-game hunter, has said that he had the proper permits for the hunt and was unaware that the lion was being monitored by British researchers who had placed a tracking collar on the animal. Palmer, 55, who became the object of fierce attacks by animal rights activists, closed his dental practice for more than a month. The trial of the professional hunter, Theo Bronkhorst, who has also denied any wrongdoing, has been postponed twice.
The killing of the lion, which was little known inside Zimbabwe itself, fueled anger on social media sites, especially in the West. Many airlines responded to the fury by banning the transport of animal trophies, which are prized by big-game hunters who typically pay tens of thousands of dollars to hunt lions and other big-game animals.
Many African nations, as well as some conservationists, support trophy hunting as a way to finance the overall protection of wildlife.