Campbell Fights Subpoena To Testify At Ex-liberian Leader’s Trial
By WENNThursday, May 20, 2010
NAOMI CAMPBELL is fighting a potential subpoena to testify in former Liberian president CHARLES TAYLOR’s war crimes trial in The Netherlands because she fears for her safety if she appears.
Prosecutors trying the former leader in The Hague have asked judges to subpoena the supermodel as a witness.
They have filed a motion calling for the Brit to testify about uncut diamonds Taylor allegedly gave her as a gift in 1997.
Campbell insists she won’t have much to give prosecutors if they insist on calling her as a witness as Taylor was just a guest at a party she attended.
The model recently stated, “I was a guest of Mr. Mandela in his home… He (Taylor) wasn’t invited and none of us knew who he was. He wasn’t part of our group.”
And, in a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, Campbell confessed she was worried about about her safety if she was called to testify in the trial: “I don’t want to be involved in this man’s case; he has done some terrible things and I don’t want to go and put my family in danger.”
Prosecutors reveal Campbell’s lawyer has told them his client is “concerned for her safety”.
The lawyers claim Taylor provided arms and ammunition to rebels during Sierra Leone’s civil war in exchange for diamonds. He denies the allegations.
The prosecution also wants actress Mia Farrow to testify about the alleged gift after she revealed Campbell had told her about the present.
Farrow, who was at the party with Campbell when the gift was given to her, recently urged the model to “step up” and testify at the trial. She alleges Campbell told her about her unusual present over breakfast the next morning.
