Trial / Charles Taylor

by Alpha Sesay

As Court Takes Break, News That Supermodel Testimony May Be Delayed

As the trial of Charles Taylor moved into a week-long judicial recess today, news broke that the much anticipated appearance by British Supermodel Naomi Campbell may no longer take place at the end of July.

According to prosecution counsel, Nicholas Koumjian, Ms. Campbell planned to ask the judges to reschedule her appearance and would soon put her request in writing.  The judges, however, could not rule on her request until after the judicial break.

Mr. Koumjian assured the court that Ms. Campbell’s preferred date of testimony is close to the one indicated in her subpoena (July 29) – and will likely take place before the current witness — former Sierra Leonean rebel leader, Issa Sesay —  leaves the witness stand.

Testimony by actress Mia Farrow and Ms Campbell’s former agent, Carole White, will likely follow that of the British supermodel.  The three high profile women are set to testify about allegations that in 1997, while on a visit to South Africa — and after a star studded dinner hosted by former South African president Nelson Mandela — Mr. Taylor sent men to deliver rough diamonds to Ms. Campbell. Prosecutors suggest that the rough diamonds were given to Mr. Taylor by Sierra Leonean rebels in the hope that the former Liberian president would exchange them during his travels for arms and ammunition, which helped to fuel the rebels’ crimes during the conflict.  Mr. Taylor has denied the allegations.

In Mr. Sesay’s testimony as a witness for Mr. Taylor, the former Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader has denied that the RUF gave diamonds to Mr. Taylor, and dismissed as false allegations that Mr. Taylor bought weapons and ammunition for RUF rebels.

Mr. Taylor’s trial resumes on Monday, July 26, with Mr. Sesay again taking the witness stand.

21 Comments

  1. The sixty four thousands dollars question is, will Ms Campbell take the alleged half million dollars bribe from the prosecution and testify that President Taylor indeed give her diamond, or will she (Ms Campbell) refused to take the bribe and testify to the truth? The same truth she (Ms Campbell) said on the Oper Winfield show, ABC nightline and to other media houses.

    A half million dollars is a huge sum of money, if Ms Campbell was a poor African woman, I will advice her to take the money and do a “Run by.” The same way two of the prosecution main witnesses did when they were bribed one hundred thousands dollars each. The two witnesses took the money and never showed up.

    For those of you who are not familiar with the bribery from the prosecution, please read the weekly summaries of July 10, comment by Aki. Follow the link. “Interview with Taylor’s Lead Counsel Courtenay Griffiths QC in The Hague”. A Must Read!

    Obviously, read Big B’s comment posted next to Aki’s comment.

  2. Hi Ms Tracey and Mr. Alpha;
    Could you please tell us where Isa Sesay is lodged and on whose account? This guy does not deserve to have prolong accomodations being a super convict! Get him back to Rwanda to get his VIP treatment while he awaits the Bossman,taylor gankay mcarthur, the former head of the NPFL Junta Rebels!

    1. J. fallah menjor,
      My understanding is that Issa Sesay is housed within the detention/prison facility maintained by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. This facility is quite different from the one occupied by Mr. Taylor. Since Issa Sesay has already been convicted and is serving a jail term, his housing arrangement is different from those of other witnesses who have travelled to The Hague to testify. A cell within the ICTY prison facility was therefore obtained for him and an appropriate rent is being paid for that by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. I hope this explanation helps.
      Thanks,
      Alpha

      1. Alpha,

        You guys Almost never stop short of amazing me always but anyway it’s conspicuous to say the least. How come you can respond to such a ridiculous question from J.Fallah but wouldn’t be courteous enough to respond to my compliment to you and Tracey?????? What does Issa sasey accommodation has to do with the issues? Accommodation ? wow oooooo!!!!!!!

        1. GreBo,
          Please do not waste you good time, those guys are in the same boat here. All they dream and preach is that Mr. Taylor is guilty.

          Harris

    1. GreBo,

      Good job. I love it all, but the internet connectivity is badly slow here in Monrovia. Is it possible that you down load the video and send it to my email so that I can burn it to a CD? Thanks for being there. Tracey, can you help please? Here is my address: jkortu@yahoo.com.

      Regards

  4. Hello All
    can anyone help to make me understand the legal difference the coming of these three ladies will make in this case? By the way is the prosecution also bring the three men alledged to have presented the diamod on behave of former President Taylor? Any way, let me caution the prosecution about the ability and capacity of the defense to handlle these kinds of evidences in minimum time with maximum damage. watch up folks the trial needs to go on.

    1. Johnny Ndebe,

      Let me preface my comments. I have not made a decision as to whether or not I think CT is guilty or not…But, as a lawyer who has been following this trial as objectively as possible, I will say that the prosecution has done a poor job in connecting the diamonds to CT. They have trotted out many witnesses that have been raped, lost arms etc. But, they have yet to make a strong legal argument that CT recieved blood diamonds from members of the RUF in exchange for arms. They have not established (at least not very well) that HE was the cause of the attrocities that took place in Sierra Leone by fueling the conflict. I hope that makes since.

      What they seek to do by having these ladies testify that CT gave an uncut diamond to Naomi Campbell is to establish that CT did, in fact have diamonds from Sierra Lione. The fact that it is a ‘rough and uncut’ diamond is significant because that means it’s highly unlikely that it came from a shop or store somewhere in South Africa. Jewelry stores dont sell uncut diamonds typically.

      Since the court is allowing this testimony, if Ms. Campbell testifies that she did recieve an uncut diamond that will be the smoking gun the prosecution needs in my opinion as to CT’s involvement.

      2. Nikaw,
        Thanks for your comments above. The problem with Naomi Campbells evidence as far as the prosecution is concerned is that she has already said in a television interview that she never received diamonds from Mr. Taylor.

  5. No money to hunt Mr. Taylor’s hidden millions. What a shame? Please set Mr. Taylor free and drop all charges against him.

    Harris K Johnson

    1. I agree with you Harry K Johnson that this is a shame that ‘no money to hunt taylor stolen money’, but equally so taylor is already serving his punishment awaiting judgement and final throwing away of the key to his freedom for the rest of his pitiful existence! For those who rejoice that the stolen money may never be recovered, I say this to you; your great grandchildren will ultimately pay since their grandfathers continue to live not only in ignorance, but imbedded malice that never seems to go away in spite of all the experice and knowledge gained in their own lives! This is all I have to say about Gankay stolen wealth of the Republic of Liberia that will remain in Western Nations that most claim they hate but at the same time prefering that those Nations rather keep the money for themselves and for the benefit of their grandchildren’s future betterment, than for Liberia to recover it and help orphans that were created from taylor’s reign. What a people we are?

      1. Fallah,

        My children and grand children will see a better world than this, and will never learn lies. So help me God.

        Harris

  6. Too all

    With Mr. Sesay previous court room experience in mind. From a scale of 1 to 10 how reliable do you think Mr. Sesay is as a witness? 1 being unreliable and 10 being reliable. In my opinion, it would not mater if Mr. Sesay was testifying for the defense or the prosecution. I would give him about 3.5 to 4 on the reliability scale. I’m pretty sure the judges have already rated Mr. Sesay reliability as witness and it’s pretty low. In my book a person whom pleads not guilty and is convicted for the crimes they claim they did not commit, is even a liar or unfortunate, history proves 95% of the time they are liars. Mr. Sesay testimony is nothing but “Ear candy” for the novice and rated low on the reliability scale by a professional ear.

    1. Well Al Solo,

      What about Zigzag Mazar and others who claimed to have themselves engaged in crimes? Don’t yoy think the weighting given to them matters? Yet many were quoting them including some socalled established newspapers and tv stations in the West.

      1. Helen

        Engaged in crimes and convicted of crimes are totally different. You are comparing collard greens to mustard greens but the reliability scale matters in both cases. Overhearing small talk amongst criminals or people who are engaged in crimes testifing/making statements are totally different from a person that made a statement on record to judge’s (collogues of Mr. Taylor judges) that deem his (Mr. Sesay) statements to be false. Statement like “well, the children, some of the commanders used to do it but it was not an official policy of the RUF that children should be trained like adults,”. Mr. Sesay was convicted for conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups, or using them to participate actively in hostilities. Any one who have not previously testified amongst respected collogues of Mr. Taylor’s judges are far more reliable than a person (Mr. Sesay) whom has proving to be unreliable to the collogues of Mr. Taylor’s judges.

  7. Noko4

    Let me make this as clear as possible. I didn’t say Mr. Sesay was lying nor telling the truth. I said he was not reliable. Every one has heard the old folk tell about The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Mr. Sesay (or any convicted criminal whom contested the charges against them) can be compared to the boy who cried wolf due to his prior interaction with the Special Courts of Sierra Leonean. The moral of the story is “Nobody believes a liar…even when he is telling the truth!”

    1. Al,
      How much is CREDIBILITY in this case….the man’s words are BACKUP by and with DOCUMENTS…..so tell me where he lacks CREDIBILITY please. Remember he is not on the stand in defense of his trial but a WITNESS who was in the MIDDLE of the happenings…..we see LEADERS, who were involved, praising him but WHITE MEN did him in….This is the same TRICKS they believe was going to be in this case, but the wheels have fallen apart and if those judges CONVICT based on the evidences presented…..they will be the one with the CREDIBILITY issue.

      Mr. Sesay said he was NOT guilty of the charges against him and was found GUILTY….case close but if as I read the exchanges between him and Perry Mason, he didn’t get a FAIR TRIAL!!!!. Witnesses were BOUGHT and the prosecutors even tried to BUY him just to convict this one man, Mr. Charles Taylor….if you cannot thru the smoke, well, Mr Sesay is laying it out for ALL to see.

      Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Taylor is NO angel but the charges DO NOT add up based on the MANDATE of this court….do you need to see the MANDATE??

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