Ractliffe told ABC News he gave the diamonds to South Africa's special police, known as the Hawks, on Thursday. On Friday, a spokesman for the Hawks told South African media they had received the diamonds and were having them authenticated.
Prosecutors at Taylor's war crimes trial claim that the former Liberian president was in South Africa in 1997 to trade uncut 'blood diamonds' for weapons that he then gave to Sierra Leonean rebels. Taylor is being tried on charges of fueling the long and bloody civil war in Sierra Leone.
Taylor has denied giving diamonds to Campbell. In a statement to ABC News, Taylor's defense attorneys continued to dispute the story. Said attorney Terry Munyard, \"If the court finds that these things were diamonds and they were the gift of Mr. Taylor and therefore says he also bought arms and ammunition for Sierra Leonean rebels on that trip to South Africa, the defense says no competent criminal court could possibly make such a huge leap from one small fact to another.\"
Prior to her testimony Thursday, Campbell had told ABC News that she never received a diamond from Taylor. She reluctantly appeared at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague to give her version of events the night she met Taylor at the home of Nelson Mandela in 1997. She arrived at court under police protection, and said during testimony that appearing was an \"inconvenience\" for her.
On the stand, Campbell claimed two men came to her room at Nelson Mandela's residence in the middle of the night after a dinner at which she'd met Charles Taylor for the first time. 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