Diamonds - not always a girl's best friend
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The world's press was abuzz today with reports on Naomi Campbell's reluctant star turn at the war crimes trial of ex-Liberian leader Charles Taylor at which the supermodel admitted to receiving a small pouch of "dirty looking stones" after a celebrity dinner attended by the former president.
Campbell was testifying before the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) in the Dutch town of Leidschendam, on the outskirts of The Hague, about the alleged "blood diamond" gift from Taylor.
The former Liberian leader is charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity and prosecutors were hoping that the supermodel's testimony would provide evidence backing claims that Taylor used illegally mined "blood diamonds" to fund a brutal civil war.
Campbell, who was issued with a subpoena to appeal before the court, had previously refused to testify about the incident that occured after both she and Taylor attended a charity dinner thrown by the then president of South Africa Nelson Mandela in 1997.
On the witness stand today she described her summons as a "big inconvenience", adding: "Obviously I just want to get this over with and get on with my life."
The supermodel told the court that after the charity meal she was woken in the middle of the night and handed a bag of "dirty-looking pebbles" by two men she did not know. But, in a blow for the hopes of the prosecution, she said that she could not confirm that the diamonds had come from Mr Taylor.
