Supermodel Naomi Campbell took the stand
at the war crimes trial of Charles Taylor on Thursday as prosecutors
tried to undermine a key element of the former Liberian president’s
defense.
Campbell told the special tribunal that she received a gift of “dirty-looking stones” that she assumed was from him.
Prosecutors are trying to prove that Taylor handled uncut diamonds — which do not glisten like polished ones — that fueled a brutal civil war in Sierra Leone when Taylor was president of neighboring Liberia.
The supermodel was handed the stones following a dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela in 1997, she said.
“When I was sleeping, I had a knock on my door. I opened the door and two men were there. They gave me a pouch and said, ‘A gift for you.’”
The men didn’t introduce themselves or say anything else, Campbell said.
The next morning, she opened the pouch and saw a few “very small, dirty-looking stones.”
She gave them to a friend to auction for charity, she testified.
Future witnesses at the war crimes trial are likely to dispute Campbell’s story, prosecutors said after her testimony.
“Two other witnesses will also testify about these events…. there are significant differences between those accounts and Ms. Campbell’s account,” the prosecution said in a statement. It did not name the witnesses, but court papers show prosecutors plan to call Campbell’s former agent Carole White and the actress Mia Farrow.
Prosecutors had rested their case against Taylor in February 2009 but reopened it to call Campbell to testify after learning in June of that year that Taylor had given the supermodel a diamond.
He has testified that he never handled the precious stones.
Campbell shared the story of receiving the stones with White and Farrow at breakfast, she testified Thursday.
“Well, that’s obviously Charles Taylor,” one of them said. Campbell didn’t recall who said it. Then, one of them added, “Well, obviously, they are diamonds.”
Campbell said she assumed the stones came from Taylor.
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