French Company “Lafarge” to Stand Trial in Paris for Funding Jihadist Groups in Syria
ARK News.. A French news agency reported that the Paris Criminal Court is set to try the French cement company “Lafarge” and several of its senior executives next Tuesday on charges of financing jihadist groups in Syria, including the Islamic State (ISIS), to ensure continued operations at its cement plant in northern Syria.
According to France Press Agency (AFP), those facing trial alongside the company — which was acquired by the Swiss group Holcim in 2015 — include former CEO Bruno Lafont, five former executives involved in operations and security, and two Syrian intermediaries, one of whom is wanted under an international arrest warrant.
The defendants face charges of financing a terrorist organization and violating international financial sanctions imposed on Syria following the outbreak of the civil war in 2011.
In October 2024, French judges ordered the company and eight defendants to stand trial on accusations of funding terrorist organizations and breaching sanctions.
The referral order to the criminal court stated that the accused, “motivated by profit for the economic entity they served — or, for some, for personal gain — organized, approved, facilitated, or implemented a policy of providing financial support to terrorist organizations operating near the Jalabiya cement plant in Syria.”
Investigators suspect that between 2013 and 2014, Lafarge, through its Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria, paid around €5 million to armed groups classified as terrorist organizations, including ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra (then affiliated with al-Qaeda). Payments were also reportedly made to local intermediaries for the protection of the company’s Jalabiya plant during the height of the Syrian conflict.
The company had invested €680 million in building the plant in 2010. While most multinational companies withdrew from Syria in 2012, Lafarge only evacuated its foreign employees, keeping Syrian workers on site until September 2014, when ISIS seized control of the factory.
The judicial process began in 2017 following media revelations in 2016 and two formal complaints — one from the French Ministry of Economy for violating financial sanctions, and another from NGOs and 11 former employees of the Syrian branch for terrorism financing.
Two years later, an internal investigation led by the U.S. law firm Baker McKenzie and the French firm Darrois confirmed violations of Lafarge’s business conduct rules.
In October 2022, Lafarge pleaded guilty in the United States to paying nearly $6 million to ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra and agreed to pay a $778 million fine.
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