Lafarge found guilty of financing terrorism, CEO jailed six years

A court sitting in Paris, France has found cement group, Lafarge, guilty of financing terrorism through its subsidiary in Syria.

While it fined the company, it jailed its former CEO, Bruno Lafont.

In the landmark judgment, the court ruled on Monday that Lafarge paid protection money directly to ISIL (ISIS) and other armed groups.

It said this breached European sanctions to operate in northern Syria during the country’s civil war between 2013 and 2014.

The court ordered Lafarge to pay a fine of 1.12 million euros ($1.32m) and forfeit 30 million euros ($35.1m) worth of its assets.

An additional fine was levied for having disregarded international sanctions.

Eight former Lafarge employees were found guilty of financing “terrorist” organisations, including former Lafont, who was ⁠sentenced to six years in jail.

His lawyer said that he plans to appeal.

The company’s former deputy managing director, Christian Herrault, was sentenced to five years in jail.

Other former employees were handed fines and sentences ranging from one to seven years.

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

Prevost-Desprez said, “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.

“These payments took the form of a genuine commercial partnership with (ISIL).”

Lafarge paid a total of 5.59 million euros ($6.55m) to armed groups in Syria during the war, including to ISIL (ISIS) and the al-Nusra Front, which was formerly affiliated with incumbent Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Both outfits were designated “terrorist” groups by the European Union between 2013 and September 2014.

Lafarge’s plant in Jalabiya, located in northern Syria and bought by the company 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 ($937,000) were paid to secure safe passage.

Another 1.6 million euros ($1.87m) were used to purchase source materials from quarries that were under ISIL control, the court said.

The case signified the first time a company has been tried in France for financing “terrorism”, but the inquiry against Lafarge has been running since 2017.