French company Lafarge to stand trial for financing ISIS

The anti-corruption non-governmental organization Sherpa and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) issued a joint statement regarding the investigation into Lafarge's operations in Syria.

According to the statement, three judges in charge of the investigation have decided that the Lafarge group and four former executives of the company will be tried on charges of financing a terrorist organization and violating the European Union (EU) embargo, which prohibits all financial and commercial relations with the terrorist organizations ISIS and the Nusra Front.

In addition, two former employees responsible for security during the French cement company's operations in Syria and a Syrian businessman will also be tried in the same case on charges of financing a terrorist organization.

Sherpa and ECCHR stated that they welcome this new threshold reached after an eight-year investigation.

Lafarge, one of the world's largest cement companies, continued its operations in Syria despite the war that began in March 2011. The company, which maintained production activities even after ISIS seized the region, ended its work in late 2014; however, it was revealed that the company had made payments to the organization and provided materials and fuel to continue its operations in the Jalabiya region. In 2022, an appeals court in Paris, France, approved the opening of an investigation into Lafarge on the allegation of being 'complicit in crimes against humanity' by providing financing to ISIS in Syria. In the same year, the company reached a plea agreement in a US federal court, admitting to the crime of 'aiding ISIS' and agreeing to pay a fine of 777.78 million dollars.