French cement giant accused of financing terror firms in Syria
● Lafarge admits to funnelling cash ● Crimes against humanity charge
A French cement company has been handed preliminary charges that include financing a terrorist enterprise and complicity in crimes against humanity.
A French judicial official said the charges against Lafarge as a legal entity also included violation of an embargo and endangering others.
He spoke anonymously because he was not allowed to disclose details of the ongoing investigation.
Lafarge has acknowledged funnelling money to Syrian armed organisations in 2013 and 2014, allegedly including the Islamic State group.
The payments were alleged to have guaranteed safe passage for employees and supply its plant in the war-torn country.
Three officials with Lafarge were previously handed charges for their alleged roles in the process.
The French press identified them as two former plant officials and Lafarge’s security chief.
The wrongdoing precedes Lafarge’s merger with Swiss company Holcim in 2015 to create Lafargeholcim – the world’s largest cement maker.
In a statement released yesterday, Lafargeholcim said Lafarge “will appeal against those charges, which do not fairly represent the responsibilities” of the company.
The chairman of the board of Lafargeholcim, Beat Hess, said: “We truly regret what has happened in the Syria subsidiary and, after learning about it, took immediate and firm actions.
“None of the individuals put under investigation is today with the company.”
Lafargeholcim commissioned an independent investigation in 2016 that “revealed that the local company provided funds to third parties to work out arrangements with a number of armed groups, which included sanctioned parties”, the statement said. The company confirmed in front of judges yesterday “that unacceptable individual errors were made in Syria until the site was evacuated in September 2014, which it firmly regrets”. The company pledged to fully co-operate with legal authorities.
French media reports that investigating judges have not ruled out the money provided by Lafarge might have helped finance the November 2015 attacks in Paris.
In January, the magistrates allowed the association Life for Paris, which represents victims and families of November 2015 attacks, to join the procedure as a civil party.
The probe was opened in October 2016 after the French Ministry of Economy and Finance filed a complaint against Lafarge.
French NGO Sherpa subsequently also filed a complaint against the company.
It claimed Lafarge and its local subsidiary made “arrangements” with Islamic State to obtain passes and to buy oil and other raw materials needed to produce cement in Is-controlled areas of Syria.
At the time, Syria was subject to European Union sanctions imposed on President Bashar al-assad’s government, which lost control of large swathes of the country to various armed groups.
Lafargeholcim is a global giant, employing 80,000 people in around 80 countries.
French rights group Sherpa – one of the plaintiffs in the case – said it was the first time a company anywhere in the world had been charged with complicity in crimes against humanity.
They hailed the decision to charge the company, saying it was “a decisive step in the fight against the impunity of multinationals operating in armed conflict zones”.
Lafarge had been ordered to hand over 30 million euros (£26.5m) to authorities as a security deposit ahead of the trial.
The firm is suspected of paying nearly 13m euros (£11.5m) to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) and other militant groups.