Actress Mia Farrow says supermodel Naomi Campbell told her she had received a “huge diamond” from the former Liberian leader Charles Taylor.
Farrow, 65, told Taylor’s war crimes trial at The Hague that an “excited” Campbell had confided in her that two men had come to her hotel room after a charity dinner in 1997 hosted by Nelson Mandela and given her the stone.
The account differs sharply to Campbell’s recollection of events.
At the Special Court for Sierra Leone last week, Campbell said she received a pouch of “dirty looking pebbles” in the middle of the night from unknown men.
Farrow said she was having breakfast with Campbell, 40, Campbell’s ex-agent Carole White and others when the supermodel joined them and said she had been given a “huge diamond” by men sent by Charles Taylor during the night.
“I remember… having breakfast and I remember that Naomi Campbell joined us at the table,” Farrow told the court.
“She said that in the night she had been wakened by some men who were knocking at the door… they had been sent by Charles Taylor and they gave her a huge diamond.
“She said she intended to give the diamond to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Charity.”
Farrow said she did not see the diamond.
Farrow and Campbell’s accounts differ over whether the supermodel received one stone or several.
The actress told the court she was confident Campbell had spoken of one diamond rather than several stones.
However, under tough cross examination she struggled to remember other facts about the event, became confused about her son’s age at the time of the event and said the Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan was a footballer.
The defence also suggested to Farrow that Campbell and Carole White discussed giving the diamond or diamonds to charity the following day and not at breakfast.
However, Farrow insisted her account was correct – that Campbell had been given one diamond and that the model had said it was from Taylor.
“I can only tell you, and I swear on the Bible to this court and beyond, that is what Naomi Campbell said that morning at breakfast,” she said.
Campbell’s former agent is due to testify after Farrow and is also expected to contradict the model’s claims that she did not know who gave her the diamonds.
Taylor, 62, is on trial for his alleged role in the 1991-2001 civil war in Sierra Leone that claimed some 120,000 lives.
He is accused of receiving illegally-mined “blood diamonds” for arming rebels who murdered, raped and maimed Sierra Leoneans, amputating their limbs and carving initials on their bodies.
Prosecutors want to prove that Taylor took rough diamonds to South Africa in 1997 “to sell… or exchange them for weapons” for Sierra Leone rebels.
If Farrow’s account is true, it would dent Taylor’s denials of any involvement with the trade in illicit diamonds.
