CHELYABINSK, October 26. /TASS/. Simba the lion cub, who suffered severe injuries and was brought for treatment in Russia’s Urals city of Chelyabinsk from Dagestan in summer 2020, has been sent to Tanzania after recovering, the Russian Copper Company said on Tuesday.

"A special flight carrying Simba the lion and Eva the leopard has taken off from the Chelyabinsk international airport to Kilimanjaro. The animals were sent to a rehab facility, Kilimanjaro animal crew wildlife & educational center, in the town of Moshi (Tanzania), where comfortable enclosures with a free large area have been built for them. Specialists will be monitoring the cats’ adaptation and life round-the-clock," the company’s department for informational policy and communications said.

A private Boeing 737-500 was especially re-equipped to transport Simba and Eva.

On June 30, 2020 news broke that a criminal case was opened over the cruel treatment of the lion cub in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. The investigation was launched by prosecutors after reports emerged online of the cub. According to the prosecutors, in February-March 2020, an unknown individual inflicted numerous bodily injuries to the eight-month-old lion Simba.

After veterinarians and animal rights activists found the lion cub with injuries in Izberbash, a town in Dagestan, on March 24, 2020, it received all the necessary medical assistance. The lion cub was sent to a rehab center "Save Me" in Chelyabinsk.