Supermodel Naomi Campbell testified at the war crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor on Thursday, saying Taylor gave her a pouch containing “very small, dirty-looking stones” when they met at a charity dinner in 1997. Campbell told the court an unidentified man delivered them to her guest house in Pretoria, South Africa. Campbell says she gave the “pebbles” (her words) to a friend working for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. The war crimes trial, which began in 2007, concerns Taylor’s involvement in the “blood diamond” trade. Prosecutors hope to prove that Taylor lied when he swore under oath he wasn’t involved in the trading of diamonds in exchange for weapons for rebels fighting in Sierra Leone. Campbell became in the trial after Mia Farrow said the model told her the story after she received the stones in September, 1997. Taylor maintains he has never owned or traded diamonds.

New York Times