Naomi Campbell arrives at war crimes court

Supermodel Naomi Campbell on Thursday arrived at a war crimes court in The Hague to testify about a so-called "blood diamond" allegedly given to her by Liberian warlord Charles Taylor, an official said.

Campbell arrived about 10 minutes before she was due to take the stand to testify, according to an announcement made to journalists in the court's press room.

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.

They say that Taylor, 62, had men deliver a so-called "blood diamond" to Campbell's room after the two met at a celebrity dinner hosted by then South African president Nelson Mandela in 1997.
His trial opened in The Hague in June 2007 on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the 1991-2001 Sierra Leone civil war that claimed some 120,000 lives.

Taylor is accused of receiving illegally mined diamonds in return for arming rebels who murdered, raped and maimed Sierra Leone civilians, cutting off their limbs and carving initials into their bodies.