THE FORMER head of Nelson Mandela’s children’s charity, who received alleged “blood diamonds” from the British supermodel Naomi Campbell, has been cleared of wrongdoing by a South African court.
Jeremy Ractliffe, founder of the charity, had been charged with illegally keeping uncut diamonds. The gems were passed to him by Campbell after she allegedly received them as a gift from former Liberian president Charles Taylor.
A judge said the case against Ractliffe, who could have faced 10 years in jail if convicted, was not proven. “Mr Ractliffe, you are not guilty and discharged,” said magistrate Renier Boshoff after hearing half a day of testimony.
Ractliffe (74), the former chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, had been accompanied to court by his wife and five daughters, who embraced and wept after hearing the verdict. Ractliffe claimed he kept the stones and did not report them to authorities in an attempt to protect the reputations of Mandela, Campbell and the charity.
He insisted that he had no regrets and did not blame Campbell for his trouble. “I was just doing my job,” he said outside court. “I did what I did for what I felt were totally valid reasons. I have always thought I was innocent and it was very nice to have this proven.” His wife, Gail, added: “My husband is a good and honourable man.”
The existence of the stones emerged last year during the war crimes trial of Taylor at The Hague. Prosecutors said they were “blood diamonds” given by Taylor to Campbell in 1997 after a charity dinner hosted by Mandela with guests including the Hollywood actor Mia Farrow.
Campbell testified that she received “dirty-looking stones” from three men who came to her hotel room. The supermodel said that she did not know the source of the diamonds, but other witnesses claimed she had bragged about getting them from Taylor.
Campbell said she gave Ractliffe the diamonds the morning after she received them, during a trip on the luxury Blue Train, as a donation to Mandela’s charity. Ractliffe said he did not tell the foundation about the diamonds and kept them for 13 years until he gave them to the police after Campbell’s August 2010 testimony, when he had already stepped down as chief executive.
He resigned as a trustee after the diamond controversy became public. It is illegal in South Africa to possess a rough diamond because of its possible links to funding African civil wars, money laundering and other crimes.
Taylor has denied using illegally mined diamonds to buy weapons for Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front rebels during the 1991-2001 civil war. His three-year trial closed in March and judges are expected to deliver their verdict later this year. – (Copyright: Guardian News Media 2011)