French Court Says Cement Maker Lafarge is Guilty of Financing Terrorism in Syria

Rabat – A court in Paris said on Monday that cement maker Lafarge is guilty of financing terrorism in Syria.

France 24 said the company’s former CEO, Bruno Lafont, received a sentence of six years in prison for financing terrorism.

Former deputy managing director Christian Herrault, meanwhile, received a five-year sentence.

The case dates back to 2022, when the French company pleaded guilty to US charges of paying bribes to the Islamic State, also known as IS, and other terrorist groups.

Notably, it admitted to paying material support to IS from August 2013 to 2014.

Lafrage, according to the court, made nearly $5.6 million in 2013 and 2014 through its subsidiary Lafrage Cement Syria to terrorist groups and intermediaries.

The payment sought to keep its plant operating in northern Syria.

The presiding judge, Isabelle Prevost-Desprez, identified the act as a method of financing terrorist organizations, primarily IS.

The judge said this method “was essential in enabling the terrorist organization to gain control of Syria’s natural resources, allowing it to finance terrorist acts within the region and those planned abroad, particularly in Europe.”

The judge emphasized that the company created a “genuine commercial partnership” with the IS group.

The defendants in the case also include five ex-members of operational and security staff, in addition to the Syrian intermediaries, France24 said.

France’s counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office last year explained that the company was guilty of funding terrorists in pursuit of profit. 

Lafrage invested more than €680 million in the construction of its plant in Syria, which was completed in 2010.

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