The group is suspected of having paid in 2013 and 2014, via a subsidiary, several million euros to terrorist groups, including the Islamic State organization.
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The Paris Court of Appeal has ruled. The court confirmed, Wednesday, May 18, the indictment of the cement group Lafarge for “complicity in crimes against humanity” concerning his activities until 2014 in Syria.
The cement manufacturer, now a subsidiary of Holcim, is suspected of having paid several million euros in 2013 and 2014 to terrorist groups, including the Islamic State organization. The objective: to maintain the activity of a cement factory in Syria while the country was sinking into the war.
Against the opinion of the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Court of Appeal upheld the indictment against Lafarge for “endangering the lives of others”and therefore of its former Syrian employees who were led to continue their activity in the Jalabiya cement plant, while the region was in the grip of numerous violence.
An “emblematic” decision
The group had obtained from the Paris Court of Appeal in November 2019 the cancellation of its indictment in 2018 for “complicity in crimes against humanity”but in September 2021, the Court of Cassation overturned this decision of the Court of Appeal, as well as the maintenance of the group’s indictment for “endangering the lives of others”.
If the lawyers of the Lafarge group, Me Christophe Ingrain, Rémi Lorrain and Paul Mallet, did not wish to comment, the civil parties, for their part, welcomed a decision “iconic” as well as a “milestone” in this judicial investigation opened in June 2017.