20 May Naomi Campbell May Be Forced to Testify at Sierra Leone War Crimes Tribunal
This sounds like a bit of a publicity stunt by prosecutors at the Special Tribunal for Sierra Leone, but it could very well work.
Prosecutors want to subpoena Miss Campbell to testify over claims she was given the “large” diamond by Taylor after a 1997 dinner hosted in South Africa by former president Nelson Mandela.
The one Taylor is accused of giving to Miss Campbell, 39, is said to be among those he obtained from rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone and took to South Africa to sell for weapons. It is alleged to have come from mines in Sierra Leone which were seized in a campaign of terror.
Blood diamonds, sometimes referred to as conflict diamonds, are diamonds mined in rebel-held regions of Africa used to fund war.
I just don’t see how her testimony could be very important unless he told her about the source of the diamond. But I don’t know the facts of the case very well, and I suppose there could be some non-celebrity reason to make her testify.
Celebrity staff at the ICC, celebrity observers at the Hague and now celebrity witnesses at (one of the plethora of) special tribunals…not to mention the wannabe celebrity chief prosecutor of the ICC.
Obviously, the international criminal court/tribunal milieu has decided that if the Americans won’t join it, it should become them.