Theodro Bronkhorst a professional hunter appears at the magistrates court on the first day of trial in Hwange about 700 kilometers south west of Harare, Zimbabwe, in this Sept. 28, 2015 photo.

Zimbabwe will not charge American dentist Walter Palmer for killing its most prized lion in July because he had obtained legal authority to conduct the hunt, a Cabinet minister said on Monday, angering conservationists.

Palmer, a lifelong big-game hunter from Minnesota, stoked a global controversy when he killed Cecil, a rare black-maned lion, with a bow and arrow outside Hwange National Park in Western Zimbabwe.

But Palmer’s hunting papers were in order, Environment Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said on Monday. Consequently, he could not be charged.

“We approached the police and then the Prosecutor General, and it turned out that Palmer came to Zimbabwe because all the papers were in order,” Muchinguri-Kashiri told reporters.

Muchinguri-Kashiri said Palmer was free to visit Zimbabwe as a tourist but not as a hunter. The implication was he would not be issued the permits a hunter needs.

The environment minister’s comments immediately drew the ire of the animal conservation group Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, which maintained that Palmer had committed a crime and said it planned to pursue legal action against him in the US

Palmer could not be reached immediately for comment on the environment minister’s statement to reporters.

“The fact is the law was broken. We are going to get our advocates in America to actually see what they can do to bring justice to him,” said Johnny Rodrigues, the head of the task force, which first reported news of Cecil’s killing.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has previously said it was investigating the killing of the lion.

Two more people still face charges related to Cecil’s killing. Both allegedly were involved in using bait to lure Cecil out of his habitat in Hwange National Park so he could be killed.

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