By Juliette Jabkhiro
PARIS, April 13 (Reuters) – A Paris court on Monday found cement maker Holcim’s Lafarge unit guilty of charges that its Syrian subsidiary financed terrorism https://www.reuters.com/business/french-cement-maker-lafarge-faces-trial-charges-financing-jihadists-syria-2025-11-04/ and breached European sanctions to keep a plant operating in northern Syria during the country’s civil war.
Eight former Lafarge employees, including executives, were also found guilty of financing terrorism.
Judges determined that Lafarge in total paid 5.59 million euros ($6.53 million) to jihadist groups including Islamic State and the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, both designated as terrorists by the EU, between 2013 and September 2014.
The presiding judge, Isabelle Prevost-Desprez, said the payments made by Lafarge helped strengthen jihadist groups that carried out deadly attacks in Syria and beyond.
“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.
There was no immediate reaction from Lafarge or Holcim.
($1 = 0.8559 euros)
(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Dominique Vidalon)