Mandela official admits receiving Naomi diamonds

The former head of Nelson Mandela's children's charity has admitted he received three small, uncut diamonds handed to him by the supermodel Naomi Campbell in September 1997. But he refused to pass them on to the charity for fear of involving the organisation in anything illegal. Instead, he simply held on to the stones and has now handed them over to the authorities.

In a statement issued after Campbell's court testimony at the war crimes trial of Charles Taylor yesterday, Jeremy Ractliffe said: "Naomi suggested they could be of some benefit to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund (NMCF) - but I told her I would not involve the NMCF in anything that could possibly be illegal."

The NMCF has always denied receiving any diamonds from Campbell. Ractliffe's statement now explains their stance.

One of the reasons why he agreed to take the stones from Campbell was that he feared she might get into trouble if she took them out of South Africa.

"In the end I decided I should just keep them," Ractliffe said. "A factor that influenced me not to report the matter to anyone was to protect the reputation of the NMCF, Mr Mandela himself and Naomi Campbell, none of whom were benefiting in any way."

Ractliffe no longer heads the charity but remains one of its trustees.

Prosecutors at Charles Taylor's war crimes trial are seeking to establish that the former Liberian president took so-called 'blood diamonds' mined illegally in Sierra Leone to buy weapons for the rebels during that country's 1991-2001 civil war. He denies all 11 charges against him of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The allegation that Campbell was given blood diamonds by Taylor at a 1997 dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela came after the actress Mia Farrow, also a guest at the dinner, claimed the supermodel had told her about the gift.

Farrow is due to appear at The Hague next week to substantiate her story. Campbell, meanwhile, admitted yesterday to receiving a bag of 'dirty looking stones' from two men who knocked on her bedroom door following the Mandela dinner.

She said there was no note with the stones to explain were they had come from. She said she passed them on to Ractliffe the next day, hoping they might benefit the children's charity. ·