A Paris court on Monday convicted French cement maker Lafarge of financing terrorism by paying $6.5 million in protection money to jihadist groups, including Islamic State (IS), to sustain its Syrian plant amid the civil war.
Lafarge Scandal
Eight former executives faced charges, with ex-CEO Bruno Lafont jailed for six years, deputy Christian Herrault sentenced to five years, and Syrian staffer Firas Tlass receiving seven years in absentia for handling payments.
Judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez ruled the funds, disbursed from 2013 to 2014, formed a “genuine commercial partnership” with IS, enabling the group to control Syrian resources and fund attacks across the Middle East and Europe.
Prosecutors detailed €800,000 for safe passage across the Euphrates and €1.6 million for raw materials from IS-held quarries near the Jalabiya factory, bought by Lafarge in 2008 for $680 million.
Nusra Front, al-Qaeda-linked and EU-proscribed, also received payments, the court found.
Lafarge, now under Swiss firm Holcim, accepted the verdict as addressing “legacy conduct” from over a decade ago, violating its code; the company was fined over €1 million.
Herrault defended operations as protecting local workers, but the judge prioritised economic motives.
This marks France’s first corporate terrorism financing trial, following a 2022 US settlement where Lafarge paid $777.8 million. A separate French probe into crimes against humanity continues.
Syria’s war began in 2011 against Bashar al-Assad; IS captured swathes of territory in 2014, proclaiming a “caliphate.”
