Report: Zimbabwe will not charge Walter Palmer in Cecil the lion killing

KARE-TV, Minneapolis-St. Paul

The Minnesota dentist that was at the center of controversy surrounding the killing of a famed lion named Cecil will not be charged with any crime in Zimbabwe, according to a report Monday morning.

Reuters reports Palmer had "all (his) papers in order," according to Zimbabwe Environmental Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, who told reporters on Monday that Palmer could not be charged.

According to the report, Muchinguri-Kashiri said: "We approached the police and then the Prosecutor General, and it turned out that (Walter) Palmer came to Zimbabwe because all the papers were in order.

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

But on Monday she told reporters in Harare that Palmer can now safely return to Zimbabwe as a "tourist" because he had not broken the southern African country's hunting laws. She said the police and the National Prosecuting Authority had cleared Palmer of wrongdoing.

Palmer returned to work at his Bloomington, Minn., dental practice in early September and was met with a group of protesters, media and animal activists.

Palmer has long maintained he was hunting legally and said he was stunned when he found out someone in his hunting party killed Cecil.

Cecil, a resident of Hwange National park in western Zimbabwe, was well-known to tourists and researchers.