#Zimbabwe seeks extradition of American over lion death

Off camera, Palmer’s next door neighbor, who didn’t want to be identified, said she didn’t really know Walter Palmer but that his wife was a “great person'”.

APPHOTO NY110: FILE – In this image takem from a November 2012 video made available by Paula French, a well-known, protected lion known as Cecil strolls around in Hwange National Park, in Hwange, Zimbabwe. Since its release, however, it has received nearly double the amount of signatures – 170,000 in total – by Friday morning.

Safari Club global has suspended the memberships of Palmer and his hunting guide during the investigations and says anyone who hunts illegally should be prosecuted. The landowner violated the act because he “allowed a hunt to be conducted without a quota and necessary permit”, Muchinguri said. “The processes have already started”.

After that, federal officials would have to decide whether it falls under the extradition treaty with Zimbabwe, which took effect in 2000.

“We are trying other avenues”, said Richard Chibuwe, the deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Washington.

Zimbabwe and the United States have often sparred over the years. The southern African country has blamed its economic woes on U.S. sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and close associates, though many commentators have attributed Zimbabwe’s economic decline to mismanagement. More broadly, Mugabe has long railed against what he calls Western meddling in Africa, saying it is an extension of the colonial rule of the past. If convicted, Bronkhorst faces up to 15 years of time in prison.

Now it seems that a charge may only be ready for him next Wednesday, which is also when Bronkhorst is due back in court.

The hunt is meanwhile said to have exposed financial difficulties facing Zimbabwe’s wildlife conservation authority as official figures show trophy hunting generates some 40 million U.S. dollars annually for the country.

Cecil had befriended Jericho, Stapelkamp said, and together they oversaw two prides, one with three lionesses and seven cubs and another with three lionesses.

Police arrested a Zimbabwean land owner in the case of a lion that was killed in April in the same area where Cecil was fatally shot, said Geoffrey Matipano, conservation director for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.