Pero Jelinić was killed while hunting a month ago, and the circumstances of the incident are still vague.
Exactly one month after 75-year-old hotel owner from Pag Pero Jelinić was killed during a hunting trip in South Africa, his body arrived in Croatia on Thursday, reports Jutarnji List on March 3, 2018.
According to information from his close friends, Jelinić will be buried on Monday on the island of Pag. “Unfortunately, that is all we know, even though it has been a month since his death. There is no information how he was killed, whether he was accidentally killed, and who fired the fatal bullet,” said Slavko Pernar, Jelinić’s long-time close friend who used to accompany him on hunting trips.
The latest official information provided by Charlize van der Linden, the spokeswoman of the local police, to the South African media confirms that Jelinić and two more Croatians were hunting lions bred in captivity at the Leeubosch Lodge near Setlagole, in a northwestern province bordering Botswana.
After killing one lion, the hunters were following another, and Jelinić was shot. He suffered severe injuries and was urgently transported by a helicopter to a hospital in Vryburg, but the medical staff was unable to save his life.
In addition to the issue of who fired the bullet, the police are investigating whether the weapon used in the hunt was legal. The results of the investigation are still not known. The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs say they are providing all the necessary consular assistance to family members of the killed Croatian citizen and others who need help.
Jelenić was a passionate hunter whose trophy room was full of hunting trophies from all over the world. He managed the Biser Hotel on the island of Pag for more than 30 years. Last year, he rented out the hotel so that he could devote more time to his greatest passion, hunting, and the crown of his hunting career was supposed to be the lion hunt in Africa.
It is not yet known how he organised the trip to South Africa since there are more than a thousand private hunting grounds in the country. However, owners of travel agencies engaged in hunting tourism in Africa say that Croatians travelling to such destinations usually opt for traditional safaris, mostly in Namibia and not in South Africa. Hunting expeditions to lion farms are rarely organized. Such trips have recently come under criticism from various international and African hunting associations.
Jelinić was killed while hunting lions specially raised on a private farm. According to sources, such hunts usually coast about 25,000 dollars. For lion hunting in the wild, the price is at least 50,000 euro.
Translated from Jutarnji List.
