The supermodel Naomi Campbell appeared before a war crimes tribunal in the Hague today where she admitted receiving "dirty-looking" diamonds that she was later told came from the former Liberian ruler Charles Taylor.
Campbell told the court that she talked to Taylor at a charity dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela in South Africa in September 1997. She denied flirting with Taylor or sitting next to him at the dinner, and said she had never heard of Liberia at the time, the tribunal heard.
Campbell described how she was woken in the middle of the night after the dinner by two men at her door. She said they offered her a pouch and said it was a gift for her with no further explanation.
At breakfast the following day, she said, either the actor Mia Farrow or Campbell's former agent Carole White had told her the rocks must be diamonds and were probably a gift from Taylor.
Prosecutors say the story, if true, would provide evidence that Taylor traded guns to neighbouring Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for uncut diamonds, sometimes known as blood diamonds, during that country's 1992-2002 civil war.
Campbell said she gave the "dirty looking stones" to a friend, Jeremy Ratcliffe, who at the time was the director of Mandela's children's charity. She asked him to "do something good with them".
A letter from the charity was read out in court "categorically" denying that it had received diamonds from Campbell. She said Ratcliffe had told her lawyers that he still had the diamonds, the tribunal heard.
Contacted by telephone today, Ratcliffe was not prepared to discuss the trial or Campbell's accusation that he still had the diamonds in his possession, saying: "The matter is sub judice and I'm not prepared to comment."
Asked about the Children's Fund's denial, he said: "The Children's Fund is correct."
Dressed in a cream outfit, Campbell said she was reluctant to appear before the court because of the "inconvenience" and safety concerns. She resisted the prosecution's entreaties to give evidence until she was issued last month with a subpoena. "I don't want my family in danger in any way," she said. She described how she had read on the internet that Taylor had supposedly "killed thousands of people".
Taylor, the first former African leader to be tried in an international war crimes court, is accused of arming rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone in return for diamonds. He denies the allegations and looked on impassively as Campbell spoke.
The supermodel's testimony contradicts media interviews on the subject. Asked earlier this year by ABC News about claims made to the court by Farrow and White, she said: "I did not receive a diamond and I'm not going to speak about that thank you very much." Moments later, when pressed on the issue, she walked off set, apparently hitting a camera as she went.
At a later date, speaking on Oprah Winfrey's chatshow, the famously truculent Campbell refused to comment further, saying simply: "I don't want to be involved in this man's case – he has done some terrible things and I don't want to put my family in danger."
According to Farrow, who was one of several high-profile guests at Mandela's now infamous Cape Town dinner party, Campbell had said over breakfast the next morning that she had "an unforgettable story" to tell. "She told us … she had been awakened in the night by knocking at her door. She opened the door to find two or three men – I do not recall how many – who presented her with a large diamond which they said was from Charles Taylor," Farrow said.
This version of events is largely supported by evidence given by White, who said she heard the African leader say he wanted to give Campbell some diamonds. Both women are due to testify in the special court for Sierra Leone next week.
Campbell said she was no longer talking to either White or Farrow.
Taylor has asserted that he never had any of the gems in his possession and that he does not, as he told the court, "have any real experience with the diamond business".
The prosecution accuses Taylor, now 62, of obtaining illegally mined diamonds in Sierra Leone from Revolutionary United Front rebels, smuggling them over the border in "mayonnaise jars" and arming the rebels in return. The former West African "big man" would thus have played a central role in perpetuating a war that cost tens of thousands of lives and caused countless atrocities, the prosecution says.
It argues that the diamond allegedly given to Campbell was likely to have been part of a batch obtained by Taylor from the war-torn country and taken to South Africa for sale or exchange for arms. There is no suggestion that Campbell would have known that.
Along with the claims of his midnight gift to Campbell, Taylor denies all 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, rape and cannibalism.