A French court on Monday fined the cement group Lafarge over one million euros and sentenced its former boss to six years in prison for paying protection money to the Islamic State group and other jihadists to maintain its business in war-torn Syria.
Lafarge's former CEO Bruno Lafont was sentenced to six years in prison for financing "terrorism", which a judge ordered him to start serving immediately, while former deputy managing director Christian Herrault received a five-year sentence.
Lafarge itself, now owned by the Swiss conglomerate Holcim, was fined 1.125 million euros ($1.3 million).
Judges determined that Lafarge paid €5.6 million to jihadist groups, including the Islamic State and the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, both designated as terrorists by the European Union, between 2013 and September 2014.
The defendants included the company, five former members of operational and security staff, and two Syrian intermediaries.
The court found all eight former employees guilty of financing "terrorist" organisations and issued sentences ranging from 18 months to seven years behind bars.
It is the first time a company has been tried in France for such a case.
Maximum fine sought for cement maker Lafarge over terror financing
'Genuine' commercial partnership
Presiding judge, Isabelle Prevost-Desprez, recognised that the payments were intended to keep the company’s Jalabiya factory open, however she said the money helped strengthen groups that carried out attacks in Syria and abroad.
Those payments were "essential in enabling the terrorist organisations to gain control of Syria’s natural resources, allowing it to finance terrorist acts within the region and those planned abroad, particularly in Europe," she said.
She categorised the payments as "a genuine commercial partnership with the Islamic State", saying the amount paid to jihadist organisations – which was "never disclosed" – contributed to the "extreme gravity of the offences".
Herrault had argued that the decision to keep the factory open was made out of concern for local staff.
"We could have washed our hands of it and walked away, but what would have happened to the factory's employees?" he said.
Prosecutors said 69-year-old Lafont "gave clear instructions" to keep the plant operation, a decision they called "staggering in its cynicism".
The French national counterterrorism prosecutor's office (PNAT) said in its closing argument in December that Lafarge was guilty of funding "terrorist" organisations with "a single aim: profit".
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Business as usual
Lafarge’s factory began operations in 2010, just months before the start of the uprising in Syria that lead to the start of the civil war.
While other multinational companies left Syria in 2012, Larfarge evacuated only its foreign employees, and left its Syrian staff in place until September 2014, when the Islamic State, which declared a "caliphate" in parts of Syria and Iraq, seized control of the factory.
The factory continued operations, and in 2013 and 2014 the company paid intermediaries to access raw materials from quarries under IS control, and to ensure free movement for employees and trucks.
Monday's ruling follows a 2022 case when the Lafarge group paid $778 million (€665.5 million) in forfeiture and fines as part of a plea agreement in the United States.
Lafarge pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to US-designated "terrorist" organisations, after paying €5.13 million to IS and the Nusra Front to allow employees, customers and suppliers to pass through checkpoints in Syria.
(with newswires)
