US EditionFrench cement-maker Lafarge found guilty of financing jihadists in Syria
Prosecutors said Lafarge paid at least 4.7 million euros to keep its Syrian plant running and preserve access to raw materials and truck routes.
- On Monday, a Paris court convicted the Lafarge unit of Swiss conglomerate Holcim of financing terrorism and breaching sanctions in Syria, ruling the company paid the Islamic State to keep its Jalabiya factory operating.
- Between 2013 and 2014, Lafarge paid 5.59 million euros to jihadists including the Islamic State and the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, with presiding judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez stating the payments formed a 'genuine commercial partnership with IS.'
- In addition to the company, the court found eight former employees guilty of financing terrorist organizations, as prosecutors described the decision to prioritize the plant as 'staggering in its cynicism' with a 'single aim: profit.'
- Though the French court has yet to hand down sentences, the ruling follows a 2022 U.S. case where Lafarge pleaded guilty to supporting terrorist organizations and paid a $778 million fine.
- Holcim, which acquired Lafarge in 2015, maintains it had no knowledge of the Syrian dealings, while a separate ongoing case investigates allegations of complicity in crimes against humanity.
108 Articles
108 Articles
The French Justice pronounced Monday at noon a penalty that leaves in very bad place the largest cement manufacturer in the world. The Court of Paris found Lafarge Holcim guilty of having financed the Islamic State, as well as two other jihadist organizations in Syria between 2013 and 2014. This French-Swiss multinational has been punished with the maximum fine provided for by the gala legislation: €1.12 million . "It is a matter of extreme grav…
Beyond individual convictions, the judgement handed down on 13 April by the Paris Correctional Court will be a landmark and reveal the drifts of an industrial mechanism that has remained in a war zone until the financing of terrorism.
On Monday, the Paris court handed down an unprecedented decision by sentencing the former president of cementist Lafarge Bruno Lafont to six years in prison with immediate imprisonment, found guilty, along with others, of financing jihadist groups in Syria.
The Paris Correctional Court found the French cement company Lafarge and eight former leaders of the terrorist financing group guilty this Monday in 2013 and 2014. The court considers it proven that they paid jihadist groups to allow them to continue operating a plant in the midst of war in Syria.
The bribes enabled the groups inside and outside Syria to carry out deadly terrorist attacks, according to the court.
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