According to sources Naomi claimed she received a gift of dirty looking stones after first meeting former Liberian president Charles Taylor, she told a war crimes tribunal today, in a testimony that prosecutors hope will lend weight to allegations that the former warlord traded in conflict diamonds.
Giving evidence before the special court essentially for Sierra Leone, the tribunal set up the Hague to put Taylor in the dock, Naomi Campbell only confirmed that she had in fact accepted the stones, believed to actually be diamonds in September of 1997.
When originally asked about the alleged gift, the supermodel didn’t have anything to say about them, walking of a TV set this year and telling journalists she had no desire to even be associated with a man she considered to have done some awful and terrible things.
Although today, appearing as a very reluctant witness under subpoena, Naomi Campbell told the court that she did indeed get a visit from some men she had never met before. They delivered a small pouch of jewels to her room. She was a guest in Nelson Mandela’s house in South Africa, she had just attended a charity dinner with guests who included her former agent Carole White, the US actor Mia Farrow, and Taylor himself. She wasn’t sure what he was really up to or why.
During a 90 minute court session she told the judge everything she could about that night. A session that went from farce and forensic inquisition, the 40 year old insisted that she knew nothing and never had a private conversation with the at the time president. Not only had she not known about his reputation, she said, she had never heard of Liberia, and had never heard the term blood diamonds. She claimed she had no idea what was going on the entire time.