Former Liberian President Charles Taylor's defense lawyers Monday opposed a request by prosecutors at his war crimes trial to call supermodel Naomi Campbell as a witness, branding the move “a publicity stunt.” Prosecutors earlier this month filed a motion seeking to have Campbell subpoenaed to testify about claims Taylor gave her “blood diamonds” at a reception in South Africa in 1997. But Taylor's lawyers said the evidence was “tangential to the real issues” against Taylor and said prosecutors were trying to introduce it too late in the trial - 15 months after they closed their case. “For the prosecution to present such inferential evidence at this advanced stage, as part of an obvious publicity stunt, would bring the administration of justice into serious disrepute,” Taylor's British lawyer Courtenay Griffiths wrote to judges. According to the prosecution motion seeking a subpoena, Campbell told prosecutors through her lawyer she does not want to get involved in the case and is concerned for her safety.
