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3h ago

Lafarge Faces Trial in Paris Over Alleged Payments to ISIS to Keep Syrian Plant Running

Prosecutors focus on alleged funding routed to jihadist groups via passage fees, monthly payments, procurement in 2013–2014.

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Une cimenterie Lafarge, à Jalabiya, au nord de la Syrie, le 30 janvier 2025.
La cimenterie Lafarge, dans le nord-est de la Syrie, en octobre 2025.
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Overview

  • The company and eight individuals are before the Paris criminal court on charges of financing a terrorist enterprise, with some also accused of breaching EU sanctions during the Syrian war.
  • Defendants include ex-CEO Bruno Lafont, former Syria heads Bruno Pescheux and Frédéric Jolibois, ex-deputy chief Christian Herrault, two security managers, and two Syrian intermediaries, one of whom is wanted internationally and absent.
  • Investigators say several million euros went to ISIS and Jabhat al-Nosra to safeguard movements and supplies for the Jalabiya plant after foreign staff were evacuated in 2012, before ISIS took the site in September 2014.
  • An internal review in 2017 reported code-of-conduct violations, and in 2022 Lafarge SA pleaded guilty in the U.S., acknowledging nearly $6 million in payments and agreeing to about $778 million in penalties, a plea French defendants contest.
  • At least 241 civil parties, including Sherpa, ECCHR and many former Syrian employees, are participating, while a separate probe into alleged complicity in crimes against humanity remains under judicial instruction.