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Walter Palmer, a
lifelong big-game hunter from Minnesota, touched off a global
controversy when he killed Cecil, a rare black-maned lion, with
a bow and arrow outside Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe
in July last year.
While Zimbabwean authorities said Palmer had legal authority to
hunt, they were stung by the international outcry and charged
local hunter Theo Bronkhorst, who assisted Palmer, with failing
to prevent an unlawful hunt.
Bronkhorst's lawyers then applied to the High Court in
Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo to set aside the charge,
arguing it could not have been an offence under the country's
wildlife laws if Palmer had a permit to hunt.
"The court granted us that prayer yesterday - that the charges
be quashed. So I cannot imagine the state coming back again
charging him with the same charge," said Lovemore Muvhiringi, a
lawyer for Bronkhorst.
Cecil had been fitted with a collar to track his movements but
strayed outside the confines of Hwange National Park and was
then shot. Bronkhorst was accused of laying bait to lure Cecil
out of the park. Palmer said at the time that no one in his
hunting party realized the targeted lion was Cecil.
Wildlife hunting is an important revenue source for the southern
African country, which is grappling with its worst shortage of
cash since it dumped its inflation-ravaged currency in favor of
the U.S. dollar in 2009.
Conservationists worldwide were outraged when Zimbabwe's
government announced in October last year that Palmer would not
be charged over Cecil's killing because he had obtained legal
authority to conduct the hunt.
But the government said Palmer would be free to visit Zimbabwe
only as a tourist, not a hunter, in future, implying he would
not be issued the required permits.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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