French cement maker Lafarge found guilty of financing jihadists in Syria

A Paris court on Monday found cement maker Holcim’s Lafarge unit guilty of 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.

The case was the first time a company has been tried in France for financing terrorism. Sherpa and ECCHR, two organisations that filed the initial lawsuit, in a joint statement called it “a historic decision in the fight against multinational corporations’ impunity”.

Eight former Lafarge employees were found guilty, including former CEO Bruno Lafont, who was sentenced to six years in jail. His lawyer told Reuters he would appeal.

A lawyer for Christian Herrault, the former deputy managing director of the Lafarge group who was sentenced to five years in jail, said Herrault would also appeal.

Judges determined that Lafarge in total paid 5.59 million euros ($6.54 million) to jihadist groups including Islamic State and the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, both designated as terrorists by the European Union, between 2013 and September 2014.

The presiding judge, Isabelle Prevost-Desprez, said the payments made by Lafarge helped to strengthen jihadist groups that carried out deadly attacks in Syria and beyond.

‘COMMERCIAL PARTNERSHIP’ WITH ISLAMIC STATE

“It is clear to the court that the sole purpose of the funding of a terrorist organisation was to keep the Syrian plant running for economic reasons. Payments to terrorist entities enabled Lafarge to continue its operations,” Prevost-Desprez said.

“These payments took the form of a genuine commercial partnership with the Islamic State,” she added.

The cement maker was ordered to pay a 1.125 million euro ($1.32 million) fine, the maximum penalty available for a company, as prosecutors had requested.

“Lafarge SA acknowledges the court’s finding, which concerns a legacy matter involving conduct that occurred more than a decade ago and was in flagrant violation of Lafarge’s Code of Conduct,” the company said in a statement.

“The decision is an important milestone in Lafarge SA’s actions to address this legacy matter responsibly and the company is reviewing the court’s reasoning.”

Holcim did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It was not immediately clear whether the other former employees found guilty would also appeal. They were handed sentences ranging from one to seven years, as well as fines.

The Jalabiya plant, located in northern Syria and bought by Lafarge in 2008 for $680 million, began operating in 2010, months before the beginning of the Syrian uprising in early 2011.

Employees were housed in the nearby town of Manbij and needed to cross the Euphrates river to access the plant. Among the payments, the court found more than 800,000 euros were paid to secure safe passage.

Another 1.6 million euros were used to purchase source materials from quarries that were under Islamic State control, the court said.

Lafarge became part of Switzerland-listed Holcim HOLN.S in 2015.

In a separate case in the United States, Lafarge admitted in 2022 that its Syrian subsidiary paid $6 million to Islamic State and the Nusra Front to allow employees, customers and suppliers to pass through checkpoints after civil conflict broke out in Syria.

The group paid $778 million in forfeiture and fines as part of its U.S. plea agreement.

Lafarge is also under investigation in France for complicity in crimes against humanity over how the company kept its factory running in Syria.