I handed blood diamonds to Mandela's charity: Naomi

Naomi Campbell, told a war crimes tribunal that she gave alleged blood diamonds to the head of Nelson Mandela's children's charity.

Giving evidence at The Hague, Campbell admitted that she was given a few "dirty-looking pebbles", which are alleged to be blood diamonds from the Liberian warlord following a charity gala hosted by Mandela in 1997.

Taylor (62), is being tried on 11 counts of war crimes in Liberia's neighbouring Sierra Leone, including charges of murder, rape and sexual slavery. He is accused of trading in 'blood diamonds' to fund the bloody war in which more than 120,000 died.

Central to the prosecution case is the allegation that Taylor had given Campbell some of these "blood
diamonds" as a gift after they met at the banquet hosted by Mandela on September 25, 1997.

Campbell said that she had given the uncut diamonds to Jeremy Ractliffe, the director of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, the following day. Ractliffe refused to comment on Campbell's claims,u00a0 "The matter is subjudice so I am not saying anything."