French cement Lafarge faces trial over alleged payments to ISIS in Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The French cement company Lafarge is going on trial in Paris on Tuesday, accused of paying millions of dollars to the Islamic State (ISIS) and other extremist groups to maintain operations at its cement plant in northern Syria during the country’s civil war.
The charges against Lafarge, now part of the Swiss conglomerate Holcim, include “funding terrorism” and violating international sanctions, AFP reported.
French prosecutors allege that between 2013 and 2014, the company’s Syrian subsidiary, Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS), paid intermediaries and armed groups — including ISIS and the then–al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra — to ensure the safety of its Jalabiya plant and the movement of its employees and materials.
The company could face fines of up to $1.2 million if found guilty. Its former CEO, Bruno Lafont, five ex-executives, and two Syrian intermediaries are among the defendants. One of the Syrians remains at large under an international arrest warrant.
In a related U.S. case, Lafarge pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiring to provide material support to terrorist organizations and agreed to pay a $778 million fine — the first such conviction of a corporation in the United States.
Lafarge completed construction of its $680 million cement plant in Jalabiya area, south of Kobani city in northern Syria in 2010, shortly before the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011.
While most foreign companies withdrew from Syria in 2012, Lafarge maintained operations until ISIS seized the facility in 2014. The French inquiry began in 2017 following media revelations and complaints by NGOs and former employees. Another investigation into the company’s alleged complicity in crimes against humanity remains ongoing.