Damn Naomi needs protection at a war crimes trial?? Who knew?
-Davey D-
Naomi Campbell granted special protection during war crimes trial
Supermodel allowed extra help from lawyer during the tribunal and no one may photograph her as she enters or exits the court building
Naomi Campbell has been granted special protection when she testifies at a UN war crimes tribunal on Thursday over claims that she was given blood diamonds by Liberia‘s former president Charles Taylor.
The court ruled that no one may photograph or film Campbell as she enters or exits the court building, or while she is in it. She will also have a lawyer on hand to make sure she does not say anything incriminating.
Judges said there were “legitimate grounds of concern” for Campbell’s security and privacy because of her high public profile and the intense media scrutiny of her anticipated testimony.
The court also said it was “in the interests of justice” to allow the supermodel extra help from a lawyer during her testimony, who has a limited right to intervene on whether to allow questions if she could incriminate herself by answering them.
She is due to appear on Thursday, but the court has not yet ruled on a motion submitted last week by Taylor’s lawyers to delay her appearance.
Legal representatives for Campbell, including former director of public prosecutions Lord Ken Macdonald QC, had filed a confidential application to the court requesting a wide range of protective measures for her testimony. Media lawyers questioned the court’s decision. “These kinds of provisions in war crimes trials are quite exceptional,” said Mark Stephens, of Finers Stephens Innocent. “She is being treated in a preferential way to other witnesses.”
The prosecution called Campbell to testify after Mia Farrow claimed that the supermodel had told her that she had been given a rough diamond by Taylor in September 1997 while she was a guest of Nelson Mandela in South Africa.
Farrow told prosecutors that Campbell told her that “she had been awakened in the night by knocking at her door. She opened the door to find two or three men – I do not recall how many – who presented her with a large diamond which they said was from Charles Taylor.”
Taylor has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He has dismissed the Campbell diamonds story as “total nonsense”.
original story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/03/naomi-campbell-testify-war-court?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter