French cement giant Lafarge paid millions to ISIS, charged with crimes against humanity

■ Cement giant Lafarge paid terrorists to keep Syria factory open

Paris, June 28: French cement giant Lafarge was charged Thursday with complicity in crimes against humanity and financing a terrorist organisation for paying millions to jihadist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Suria, to keep a factory in Syria open during the war.

A legal source said the company, which paid the armed groups through middlemen, has also been charged with endangering the lives of former employees at the cement plant in Jalabiya, northern Syria.

French rights group Sherpa, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said it was the first time that a company anywhere in the world had been charged with complicity

Lafarge is suspected of paying nearly 13 million Euros ($ 16 million) to ISIS and other militant groups to keep the Jalabiya plant running long after other French companies had pulled out of Syria

◗ in crimes humanity.

Lafarge was ordered to hand over 30 million euros ($ 35 million) to authorities as a security deposit ahead of the trial.

Eight Lafarge executives, against ◗ including former CEO Bruno Laffont, have already been charged with financing a terrorist group and/ or endangering the lives of others over Lafarge’s activities in Syria between 2011 and 2015.

Eight Lafarge executives, including former CEO Bruno Laffont ( pic), have been charged with financing a terrorist group and/ or endangering lives of others in Syria between 2011 and 2015

Beirut, June 28: A barrage of Russian air strikes on rebel- held areas of southern Syria killed 22 civilians on Thursday, a monitoring group said, most of them in a single battered town.

“At least 35 Russian air strikes hit the town of Al- Mseifra,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “One of them hit a basement where people were taking shelter, killing 17 civilians, including five children,” the UK- based monitor said.