[sethii]

Naomi Campbell may be subpoenaed by war crimes court
War crimes prosecutors in The Hague say supermodel Naomi Campbell should be subpoenaed to testify at the trial of Liberia's ex-President Charles Taylor.

They say Ms Campbell "was given rough diamonds" by Mr Taylor in 1997 at Nelson Mandela's house in South Africa.
Mr Taylor is accused of using "blood diamonds" to fuel an insurgency in Sierra Leone that cost tens of thousands of lives.
Ms Campbell had previously declined to provide testimony to prosecutors.
"Ms Campbell's testimony is necessary as there is evidence that Ms Campbell was given rough diamonds by the accused (Taylor) in September 1997," said a prosecution motion filed with the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Mr Taylor is accused of selling diamonds and buying weapons for Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, who were notorious for hacking off the hands and legs of civilians during the brutal 1991-2001 civil war.
The trial heard claims in January that he had given Ms Campbell a "large" diamond after a 1997 dinner hosted by South African ex-President Nelson Mandela.
The former Liberian leader, who has been on trial since January 2008, dismissed the claims, calling them "total nonsense".
He has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from the 10-year war in Sierra Leone.
[bbc]

[ALAUU]

Damn, someone should make a movie of this woman's life. Assaults, blood diamonds, Russian millionaires, it's like all of Leonardo DiCaprio's movies but much more glamorous.

[ponytrot]

Well, she will most probably just not show up.

Intl courts cannot actually MAKE anyone attend their/a trial.

Case in point - Sudan's Omar al-Bashir - wanted by the International Criminal Court, yet up for re-election and very much free.

[Lonewalker]

As sad as it is, that's true. They just have no real jurisdiction and frankly they're pointless, a waste of taxpayers money!

[CharlottefromCA]

what a stain though on her already less than perfect reputation

[silk skin paws]

She's not going to show up just like before.

[Harumi]

^yep. War crimes will sadly interfere with her leg waxing and yacht hoping schedule. Suck it up, justice!

[sethii]

Quote:

Taylor war crimes trial orders Naomi Campbell to court British supermodel Naomi Campbell has been ordered to give evidence on 29 July in the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. The UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone issued a subpoena forcing her to appear and said law enforcement agencies should ensure she did so. Prosecutors say Ms Campbell was given a "blood diamond" by Mr Taylor in 1997 at Nelson Mandela's house in South Africa. Mr Taylor is accused of using such diamonds to fuel a war in Sierra Leone. Ms Campbell had previously refused to provide testimony in the case. 'Material assistance' In a ruling published on Thursday, the judges of the Special Court, which sits in The Hague, ordered the registrar to serve Ms Campbell the subpoena and transmit copies to the authorities in the country where she was currently living. On Wednesday, the court agreed to a prosecution request to call Ms Campbell, as well as the actress Mia Farrow and Ms Campbell's former agent, Carole White. Ms White has said she heard Mr Taylor say he was going to give Ms Campbell some diamonds and was there when she received them. Ms Farrow, who attended the dinner, has said Ms Campbell told her about the gift of the diamond the following morning. Ms Campbell said she had been visited by Mr Taylor's aides during the night, and that they had given her a "huge" uncut diamond, according to Ms Farrow. Prosecutors had complained that they had tried unsuccessfully to contact Ms Campbell several times since June 2009, when they first heard of the gift. They cited public statements in which she said she "does not want to be involved". Quote: CHARLES TAYLOR 1997: Elected Liberian president 2003: Arrest warrant issued, steps down, goes into exile in Nigeria 2006: Arrested, sent to Sierra Leone 2007: Trial opens in The Hague Profile: Charles Taylor Q&A: Trying Charles Taylor They said the model's testimony would support their contention that Mr Taylor lied when he testified that he never possessed rough diamonds. Agreeing to the request on Wednesday, the court said: "The prosecution has shown that there is at least a good chance that the information to be provided by Ms Campbell would be of material assistance to its case." Ms Farrow and Ms White were both willing to testify, prosecutors say. Mr Taylor is accused of selling diamonds and buying weapons for Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, who were notorious for hacking off the hands and legs of civilians during the brutal 1991-2001 civil war. He pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from the war when his trial opened in June 2007. He has also dismissed the claims he presented Ms Campbell with a "blood diamond" - the name given to diamonds mined in areas of conflict that are sold to fund warfare. The court said the three women should appear as soon as possible, before the close of the defence's case, expected by September.

news.bbc.co.uk

[sethii]

Quote:

Why doesn't Naomi Campbell want to testify about her 'blood diamond'? The supermodel is resisting calls to give evidence at the Hague trial of former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor Elizabeth Day The Observer, Sunday 4 July 2010 Naomi Campbell arrives at Uxbridge magistrates court in 2008 to face charges of assaulting two police officers at Heathrow airport. Photograph: Simon James/WireImage Over the years we have become accustomed to seeing Naomi Campbell in court. In 2000 she pleaded guilty to attacking her assistant with a telephone in a hotel room. Six years later she admitted hitting her housekeeper with a jewel-encrusted mobile phone, causing an injury to the head that required several stitches. In 2008 she was arrested at London's Heathrow airport on suspicion of assaulting a police officer after one of her bags was lost. Then, earlier this year, a limousine driver filed a report with the New York City Police Department claiming that Campbell had slapped and punched him. Campbell's court appearances, like the blooming of the cherry blossom or the migration of swallows, seem to have become a regular occurrence in the calendar. But not even the most seasoned Campbell watcher could have predicted that she would one day be pursued by the courts in The Hague. And yet last week the model was ordered to give evidence at the war crimes trial of Liberia's ex-president, Charles Taylor. The UN-backed special court for Sierra Leone issued a subpoena forcing Campbell to appear after allegations surfaced that she was given a so-called "blood diamond" by Taylor at a dinner party held by Nelson Mandela in South Africa in 1997. The former dictator is accused of selling diamonds to fund a bloodthirsty war that cost thousands of lives. It was one of these uncut diamonds that Taylor is alleged to have given the supermodel. The actress Mia Farrow, who was a guest at the same dinner party, has claimed that Campbell told her she was interrupted in the middle of the night by some men saying they were representatives of Taylor before handing over a "huge diamond". Carole White, Campbell's agent at the time, says that she witnessed the event. "I was there," she says, speaking from the London headquarters of Premier Model Management, the company that she founded and that represented Campbell for 17 years. "He did give it to her. It was a small, uncut diamond. I am totally surprised that Naomi hasn't admitted it." But Campbell has consistently refused to volunteer her own testimony to the tribunal, furiously walking out of a recent television interview with ABC News when the reporter had the temerity to ask about the allegations. It seemed a strange reaction for a woman who, having turned 40 earlier this year, has tried to distance herself from a youth-obsessed modelling industry and reinvent herself as a charity campaigner. She is a "global ambassador" for the White Ribbon Alliance, which aims to raise awareness of the number of women who die each year following complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth. She has also campaigned on behalf of Aids charities, and raised money to tackle global poverty. In February she staged a catwalk show at London fashion week to support victims of the Haiti earthquake. So assiduously has Campbell developed her charity profile that she now counts Sarah Brown, the wife of the former prime minister, as a close friend. And it is true that, despite her flaws, Campbell remains a role model for many in the fashion world for her trailblazing determination to put black models on an equal footing with their white counterparts. Campbell was the first African-Caribbean woman to make the cover of French Vogue and is one of the few models to speak out about racism in the industry. Steve Pope, editor of the Voice, the weekly newspaper aimed at Britain's black community, says that Campbell is a pioneer. "It has always been an unspoken rule that if you're a fashion magazine editor and you put a black model on the cover, you lose sales. Naomi turned that around and showed that, if you put her on the cover, if anything it would boost sales. Unlike some other models who have kept quiet about discrimination, she has actually started speaking out about it." It is hard to reconcile this Naomi Campbell – the pioneer, role model, tireless charity campaigner – with the petulant, aggressive woman who lashes out by throwing mobile phones at assistants and refuses to testify at a war crimes tribunal apparently in a fit of pique. But those close to Campbell say her behaviour is fairly typical for a woman who can flip without warning from one extreme to another. "It's most definitely her temperament," says White. "She's a Gemini and she has two sides. One side is this generous, intelligent, witty, funny and vulnerable individual, but the bad side negates a lot of those things. The bad side is very self-destructive, with no self-control. She doesn't care about the consequences when she's like that, for herself or other people." White adds bluntly that working with the model was "a bloody nightmare… She was very hard work, unpredictable and you never quite knew if she was going to turn up. I just took care of her, almost as a mother would. I also worked out that you should never get close to her. I watched so many people think they were her best friend. In her case, familiarity did breed contempt. I think she is very driven by not wanting to go back to where she came from. She got out of that life into a fairy-tale life, meeting incredible people and becoming pretty powerful in her own way." Campbell was born in Streatham, south London. Her part-Chinese father was unnamed on her birth certificate and walked out when Campbell's Jamaican-born mother, Valerie, was four months pregnant. Valerie danced in a 1970s go-go troupe and was on the road for long periods – until the age of 10, Campbell was largely brought up by friends and relatives. Her way out of Streatham came about by chance. When she was 15, she was spotted in Covent Garden by a model scout and signed up for a shoot with Elle magazine, whose then editor, Sally Brampton, later recalled the gawky teenager as "a bird of paradise". Within five years, Campbell had earned her supermodel stripes, appearing on countless magazine covers, posing nude for Playboy and starring in George Michael's 1990 Freedom music video alongside Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista. It must have been quite a culture shock for a south London schoolgirl. In the catty world of high fashion, where models and designers were accustomed to smiling prettily while stabbing one another in the back with a judiciously placed stiletto, Campbell's straight talking won her few admirers. The designer Alexander McQueen, who died earlier this year, once said that because Campbell "came from the street, like I do, people can't handle her. They can't handle that sort of aggression." Dylan Jones, the editor of GQ magazine, puts it differently: "Naomi Campbell genuinely kicks up dust, and for that reason people find her fascinating." In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in May, Campbell tried to explain her outbursts as stemming from "an abandonment issue and also from trying to just build up a family around me that's not my immediate family. If I feel a mistrust, then… all my cards go down." But for all that she might seek to build up a protective dam of friends and surrogate family, Campbell still cuts a distinctly lonely figure. She has never married, instead pursuing a succession of short-lived relationships with high-profile men, including Formula One boss Flavio Briatore, boxer Mike Tyson and dancer Joaquín Cortés (she has been dating her current boyfriend, billionaire Russian property mogul Vladimir Doronin, for a little over a year). Although her fellow model Kate Moss describes Campbell as "one of the most truthful and generous friends I have known", she does not seem to have all that many people she can rely on. "Her lifestyle is quite lonely," says Carole White. "It's very privileged in the way that she travels first class or on private jets or hangs out with princes and presidents, but that cuts you off from normal life. I think she finds it difficult to behave in a normal way and she's plagued with hangers-on. She's quite suspicious of the people around her. She has a few friends, but it's a small group and because of her bad temper she falls out with people." Perhaps it is this innate mistrust of the motives of others that has made Campbell so unwilling to travel to The Hague to give her side of the "blood diamond" story. But for a woman who has so few constant relationships in her life, how sad that one of the main ones should apparently be with her solicitor. TANTRUM QUEEN ■ In 1998 the model was arrested and charged with assaulting her assistant with a telephone. She pleaded guilty to the assault in 2000. ■ Troubles with assistants and telephones resurfaced in 2003 when she was sued by her former administrative assistant, who claimed a phone was thrown at her during a tantrum. ■ She was sued again in 2006 by another former assistant, Amanda Brack. It was alleged that Campbell beat Brack around the head with a Blackberry personal organiser. ■ On 30 March 2006 Campbell was arrested in New York for allegedly assaulting her housekeeper, Ana Scolavino, with a jewel-encrusted mobile phone. She was sentenced to five days' community service and ordered to attend an anger management course. ■ In 2008, Campbell pleaded guilty to kicking and spitting at police officers who dragged her from the first-class deck of a BA flight to Los Angeles after she flew into a rage over a missing piece of luggage. She was sentenced to 200 hours of community service. ■ In March, her limo driver claimed she had slapped and punched him while he was driving before fleeing the scene. The driver chose not to press charges.

guardian

[lunabella]

girl has invented a new category of drama

[sethii]

Well what would you know...

Quote:

Naomi Campbell to testify at Charles Taylor trial Supermodel Naomi Campbell has confirmed she will give evidence at the war crimes trial of the former Liberia President Charles Taylor. Mr Taylor is on trial at the UN-backed tribunal in The Hague accused of using diamonds to fuel a conflict in Sierra Leone that killed tens of thousands. Prosecutors had summoned Ms Campbell to testify over reports that she received diamonds from Mr Taylor in 1997. Ms Campbell is scheduled to appear on 29 July. Mandela reception Ms Campbell's public relations company, Outside Organisation, announced late on Friday that she would attend. A spokeswoman said: "She is a witness who has been asked to help clarify events in 1997. Miss Campbell has made it clear that she is willing to help the due process of law. "For avoidance of doubt, she is not being accused of any wrongdoing and is not on trial." Prosecutors want to know whether Ms Campbell received diamonds from Mr Taylor at a reception hosted by Nelson Mandela in South Africa in 1997. A spokesman for the special court for Sierra Leone previously said Ms Campbell had denied receiving the gems and refused to talk to prosecutors. In an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Ms Campbell neither confirmed nor denied that she received gems, instead saying: "I don't want to be involved in this man's case. He has done some terrible things, and I don't want to put my family in danger." US actress Mia Farrow, who Ms Campbell allegedly told about the gift, may also testify. Mr Taylor has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges at the UN-backed tribunal. It has spent more than two years hearing the case. Mr Taylor, 62, is suspected of selling diamonds and buying weapons for Sierra Leone's RUF rebels, who were notorious for hacking off the hands and legs of civilians during the 1991-2001 civil war. Tens of thousands of people died in the interlinked conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Quote: CHARLES TAYLOR 1997: Elected Liberian president 2003: Arrest warrant issued, steps down, goes into exile in Nigeria 2006: Arrested, sent to Sierra Leone 2007: Trial opens in The Hague Profile: Charles Taylor Q&A: Trying Charles Taylor

news.bbc.co.uk

[sethii]

Talking about it with Oprah. Says she will be in danger if she testifies.

from 07:00 on

[eternitygoddess]

I don't doubt she'll be in danger if she testifies.

[CharlottefromCA]

hmm.. could this be? I'm sympathizing with her.. I understand where she is coming from now.

[KissMiss]

I kind of found myself sympathising her as well which is a bit weird but we all know how things get twisted even though i've heard about her cocain addiction from people she worked with and they have horrible memories... Anyway I wish her well...