Cecil the Lion accused arrested for antelope smuggling

A Zimbabwean court has charged three South African men with illegally capturing 29 sable antelopes and attempting to export them without a permit, the local parks authority said on Sunday.

Three South African men have reportedly been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle sable antelope across the border.

Theo Bronkhorst, 52, who’s dealing with trial for the “unlawful hunt” in July by which the well-known black-maned predator was utilizing a bow and arrow, is now accused of being an confederate to wildlife smuggling and for shifting animals and not using a allow.

Theo Bronkhorst, 52, was arrested Monday in Zimbabwe’s second largest city of Bulawayo, police said on Tuesday.

According to the NYDailyNews, the men had no capture or relocation permits for the seven males, 16 females and six calves originating from a private sanctuary in Zimbabwe being shipped to a private conservancy in South Africa.

They’d reportedly entered through a small and legal crossing on the Zimbabwe/Botswana border, but were arrested near Beitbridge.

Bronkhorst had been out on bail after being charged for the allegedly illegal hunt of Cecil by dentist James Walter Palmer in July.

The South Africans, Edwin Hewitt, aged 49, Hendricks Johannes Blignaut, 41, and John Herbert Pretorius, 49, were caught when their trucks got stuck in mud close to Beitbridge.

Palmer has since pleaded innocence and said he did not know that the lion he killed – which had a Global Positioning System collar as part of a research by Oxford University – was prized.

Bronkhorst will appear in court on September 28 in connection with the Cecil case.

The scheme involved trying to smuggle 29 sables worth $384,000 into South Africa, according to the parks authority.