Harare - A court in Zimbabwe has agreed to drop the charges against the professional hunter involved in last year's high-profile killing of Cecil the Lion, Theo Bronkhorst's lawyer said on Thursday.

Bronkhorst led US dentist Walter Palmer on the hunt that resulted in the death in early July 2015 of Cecil, a magnificent black-maned lion from Hwange National Park.

Cecil's death sparked a global outcry and a backlash against the big game hunting industry in Africa.

Bronkhorst was accused of failing to stop the hunt.

Lawyer Perpetua Dube told News24: "The charges that were brought by the state in August last year have been set aside."

"There was no full trial but the [High Court] judge has decided that the charges as they were brought at that time were not properly constituted. He’s agreed with us on that point. And that is all there is to it," she said in a telephone interview.

"It’s not an acquittal, so it doesn’t have that effect," she added.

Bronkhorst's lawyers had applied to have the charges against him dropped last year when the Zimbabwe government said it would not pursue Palmer over the case.

Said Dube: "I think [Bronkhorst] is relieved… this has been a pretty harrowing experience for him. It’s been a long year."</s>A high court in Zimbabwe dropped charges against a professional hunter who led the expedition that killed Cecil the lion in 2015. Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Twitter

HARARE, Zimbabwe, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- A high court in Zimbabwe dropped charges against a professional hunter who led an expedition that killed a beloved lion named Cecil, sparking international outrage of the death of the big cat and a call for a ban of trophy hunting.

The court ruled the charges against Theo Bronkhorst, including failing to prevent an illegal hunt, were "too vague to enable him to mount a proper defense." Bronkhorst led the expedition that included Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer, who paid some $50,000 to shoot the animal and skin it. Officials said Cecil was lured from Zimbabwe's largest game reserve, Hwange National Park, where it is illegal to shoot animals, and killed July 1, 2015.

Bronkhorst's attorney, Perpetua Dube, said the high court judge decided "the charges as they were brought at that time were not properly constituted."

"He's agreed with us on that point. And that is all there is to it," she said. "It's not an acquittal, so it doesn't have that effect."

Zimbabwe officials originally said they would charge Palmer but later dropped the plan.</s>A Zimbabwean high court has dropped charges against the professional hunter, Theo Bronkhorst, who led the expedition that killed prized lion Cecil last year, his lawyer said Friday.

"The high court has said the charges were flawed and, therefore, should be set aside," lawyer Perpetua Dube told AFP.

She said the judge had ruled Thursday that the charges "did not constitute an offence.

The high court ruling followed an application by Bronkhorst's lawyer for a review of a previous decision by a magistrate's court to have him tried over the 2015 hunt which led to the death of the iconic lion renowned for its distinctive black mane.

The hunt provoked worldwide outrage after it emerged that Cecil not only was a popular attraction for visitors to famed Hwange National Park, but that he wore a collar as part of an Oxford University research project.

Bronkhorst, 53, had been charged with "failing to prevent an illegal hunt" when American trophy hunter, dentist Walter Palmer, paid $55,000 to shoot the lion with a bow and arrow in July last year.

Zimbabwe decided not to charge Palmer after it emerged he had legal papers allowing him to hunt.

Bronkhorst denied any wrongdoing, saying he had the required permits to kill an elderly lion that was outside the national park boundaries. Cecil, who was 13 years old, was killed outside the reserve, which is not fenced.</s>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.
A Zimbabwe high court judge drops charges against Theo Bronkhorst, the professional hunter who led the expedition that resulted in the death of the lion named Cecil, because the prosecutor's filing was not properly constituted, and was "too vague to enable (the defendant) to mount a proper defense."