French cement maker Lafarge found guilty of financing jihadists in Syria

PARIS: 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.