The cement company accused of financing terrorism

The cement company accused of financing terrorism

A particular trial will begin shortly in France. The accusation is that of terrorism, but it will not be a group of extremists or a “lone wolf” who will end up on trial. Lafarge, a company that produces cement, now part of the Holcim group, will end up in the dock. To be precise, the company is accused because its Syrian branch financed terrorism and violated European sanctions in order to keep a factory running, as explained by the French anti-terrorism prosecutor. The company had already been fined in 2022 in a separate trial in the United States.

What does the Lafarge company do?

Lafarge, which merged with the Swiss-listed Holcim group in 2015, has been at the center of an investigation into its activities in Syria since 2016. It is one of the most extensive corporate criminal proceedings in recent French legal history. On October 16, investigating judges in Paris ordered Lafarge to stand trial. In a statement released to Reuters on Thursday, the company said it recognized the investigating judges’ decision. Following the announcement, Holcim shares fell nearly 2%, before recovering slightly to close 0.7% lower.

France under attack by Isis but its companies do business with the jihadists

Lafarge is a historic French company, specialized in building materials and which has become a world leader in its sector. Its first major project was the construction of the Suez Canal in 1864, in which the company delivered 200,000 tons of hydraulic lime to build the canal’s piers. In June 2016, the transalpine newspaper Le Monde had revealed that Lafarge would finance the Islamic State between spring 2013 and the end of summer 2014 in order to be able to continue its activities in the conflict zone in Syria. In 2018, the official accusation of “violation of an embargo”, of “endangering the lives of others” and of “complicity in crimes against humanity” arrived.

The relations between Lafarge and the Islamic State

The broader investigation, led by the anti-corruption group that filed the criminal complaint against the company, is examining how the group managed to keep its factory in Syria running after war broke out in 2011. The supreme court heard in January France rejected Lafarge’s request to withdraw charges of complicity in crimes against humanity from the investigation.

The accusations of violation of sanctions concern the European ban on financial or commercial links with the Islamic State and Al-Nusra militant groups. In another investigation conducted in the United States, Lafarge admitted in 2022 that its Syrian subsidiary paid groups designated by Washington as terrorists, including the Islamic State, to help them protect plant staff in a country shaken by years of civil war.