Jeremy Ractliffe, a former trustee in Nelson Mandela Children's Fund charity, has been found not guilty on charges of illegal possession of rough diamonds, news outlets report.



Last week, a Johannesburg court ruled that prosecutors had not provided sufficient evidence to support the charges against Ractliffe.



Ractliffe received the diamonds in question from model Naomi Campbell in 1997 at a gala fundraising event for the charity. Campbell had been given the diamonds by representatives of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor – whose trial for war crimes, including trafficking in conflict diamonds, recently concluded in The Hague, with judges yet to hand down a verdict – and showed them to Ractliffe, who took charge of them to keep Campbell and the charity out of trouble.



South African authorities have maintained that the charges against Ractliffe were unrelated to the Taylor trial, and that the only issue at hand was his alleged possession of rough diamonds, which is illegal under local law.



In a statement to the court, the former trustee said he wasn't sure the stones were, in fact, rough diamonds: "I merely knew that they were said to be diamonds," he said.