US EditionFrench cement maker Lafarge faces trial on charges of financing jihadists in Syria
Lafarge is accused of paying jihadist groups millions in 2013-2014 to keep its Syrian factory running, facing up to $1.2 million fine if convicted of terrorism financing.
- On Tuesday in Paris, Lafarge, the French cement group, goes on trial accused of paying the Islamic State group and Jabhat al-Nusra to keep its $680-million northern Syria factory running.
- An inquiry opened in 2017 after media reports and two legal complaints, while Lafarge evacuated expatriate employees but left Syrian staff until September 2014 when IS seized the factory.
- Defendants listed include Lafarge, former director Bruno Lafont, five ex-members of operational and security staff, and two Syrian intermediaries; one Syrian is subject to an international arrest warrant and expected absent.
- The trial is scheduled to last until mid-December in Paris, with Lafarge facing a $1.2 million fine if found guilty of `funding terrorism`.
- The case follows a US guilty plea with a $778-million fine, civil suits by 430 Americans of Yazidi background and Nobel laureate Nadia Murad, while Holcim denies knowledge and another French investigation continues.
61 Articles
61 Articles
The cement company Lafarge paid millions of euros to the IS in order to continue doing business in Syria. Now the ex-managers are facing long prison sentences.
French cement maker Lafarge faces trial on charges of financing jihadists in Syria
Cement maker Holcim's Lafarge unit goes on trial on Tuesday facing charges that its Syrian subsidiary financed terrorism and breached European sanctions to keep a plant operating in northern Syria during the country's civil war.
Holcim’s Lafarge on Trial Over Millions Paid to Syria Terrorists
(Bloomberg) -- Holcim Ltd.’s Lafarge is set to stand trial in Paris accused of illegally paying terrorist groups millions of euros a decade ago to keep open a cement plant in part of Syria then controlled by Islamic State and an al-Qaeda affiliate.
The trial of Lafarge and eight former officials opens this Tuesday in Paris. The group is suspected of having financed terrorist groups until 2014 to maintain its activity in Syria.
They will be tried by the Correctional Court until December 16 for financing terrorist companies, and also for some for non-compliance with international financial sanctions.
The trial of the French cement manufacturer opens on Tuesday 4 November before the Paris Correctional Court. The company had preferred to pay its tithe to ISIS rather than close a factory.
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