Naomi Campbell to testify about diamond in war crimes trial

NETHERLANDS: Supermodel Naomi Campbell was set to testify in a war crimes court Thursday about a so-called "blood diamond" gift from Liberian warlord Charles Taylor, charged with murder, rape and enslavement.

After a lull in media interest in Taylor's three-year-old trial, dozens of journalists from around the world were set to descend on The Hague to hear the British beauty's evidence about the alleged late-night gift. Prosecutors of the Special Court for Sierra Leone have called Campbell, 40, to the stand in a bid to disprove the former Liberian president's claim that he never possessed rough diamonds.

They say that Taylor, 62, had men deliver a so-called "blood diamond" to Campbell's room after the two met at a celebrity dinner hosted by then South African president Nelson Mandela in 1997. He allegedly took the diamonds to South Africa "to sell ... or exchange them for weapons".

Taylor, accused of seeking to "take political and physical control of Sierra Leone in order to exploit its abundant natural resources ... diamonds", has denied the claims.

Campbell's former agent Carole White and actress Mia Farrow, who both attended the dinner, are to testify about the gift next Monday.

The Hague, Thursday, AFP