The Hague - Supermodel Naomi Campbell told a war crimes court on Thursday she had received a gift of "dirty-looking stones" she assumed was from Liberia's Charles Taylor after a 1997 dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela.
"When I was sleeping I had a knock at my door and I opened my door and two men were there and gave me a pouch and said: 'A gift for you'," the model told the court, dressed in a classical, beige two-piece with a knee-length skirt.
Her long, straightened hair was swept back in a stylish bun, and she wore a sparkling, choker necklace.
Campbell said she left the pouch next to her bed, went back to bed and opened it the next morning.
"I saw a few stones in there. Very small, dirty-looking stones," she said, adding "there was no explanation, no note".
At breakfast that morning, she told her then modelling agent Carole White and actress Mia Farrow about the gift.
"One of the two said that is obviously Charles Taylor and I said: 'Yes, I guess it was'."
Prosecutors of the Special Court for Sierra Leone have called Campbell, 40, to the stand in a bid to disprove the former Liberian president's claim that he never possessed rough diamonds. - Sapa-AFP