AMSTERDAM — An international court Thursday subpoenaed reluctant supermodel Naomi Campbell to testify this month in the war-crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor about a rough diamond Taylor allegedly gave her in 1997.
The court warned her that she could be jailed for up to seven years if she refuses to testify.
Prosecutors want Campbell to say whether Taylor gave her a rough, or uncut, diamond as a gift during a celebrity-packed 1997 reception in South Africa hosted by then-President Nelson Mandela. They contend her testimony will support their contention that Taylor lied when he testified that he never possessed rough diamonds. Prosecutors assert that Taylor dealt in so-called blood diamonds — those mined in a war zone, where proceeds finance an insurgency. The Associated Press
