Prosecutors can subpoena supermodel Naomi Campbell to testify about a “blood diamond” she allegedly received from the disgraced former president of Liberia, a court in The Hague ruled today.
Actresses Mia Farrow and Carol White can also be summoned to the war crimes trial of Charles Taylor, the judges ruled.
Taylor, once one of the most powerful leaders in Africa, allegedly gave Campbell a spectacular uncut diamond at a dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela in 1997.
Prosecutors charged that Taylor used “blood diamonds” to finance a civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone during 1992-2001. They asked the court in the Netherlands to reopen the case because they just learned about the gift diamond last June.
Campbell has angrily refused to give details about the incident. “I didn’t receive a diamond and I’m not going to speak about that,” she told ABC News in April when she stormed out of an interview and allegedly punched the camera in a producer’s hand.
Today’s ruling by the Special Court for Sierra Leone did not say when the new witnesses would appear.