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A court in Paris has found Lafarge, the French cement giant, guilty of paying $6.5 million to jihadist groups, including the Islamic State (IS) and the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.
It is the first time a company has been tried in France for financing terrorism. The inquiry against Lafarge has been running since 2017.
Bruno Lafont, Lafarge’s former CEO, was sentenced to six years in prison for terrorism financing, while Christian Herrault, former deputy managing director, received a five-year sentence in Monday’s ruling.
Lafarge said it acknowledged the court’s findings, relaying that it was involved in practice that occurred more than a decade ago — one that was in “flagrant violation of Lafarge’s Code of Conduct”.
‘FINANCING TERRORISM’
Lafarge’s factory began operations in 2010, just months before the Syrian uprising triggered a civil war.
While other multinational companies left Syria in 2012, Lafarge evacuated only its foreign employees, and left its Syrian staff in place until September 2014, when IS, which declared a “caliphate” in parts of Syria and Iraq, seized control of the factory.
Prosecutors said Lafarge employees were housed in the nearby town of Manbig and needed to cross the Euphrates river to access the plant.
The court heard how the cement company paid intermediaries to ensure free movement for employees and trucks.
Isabelle Prevost-Desprez, presiding judge, said it was clear to the court that payments were intended to keep the company’s factory open but noted that the money helped strengthen groups that carried out attacks in Syria and abroad.
Those payments were “essential in enabling the terrorist organisations to gain control of Syria’s natural resources, allowing it to finance terrorist acts within the region and those planned abroad, particularly in Europe,” Prevost-Desprez said.
She said the amount paid to jihadist organisations — which was “never disclosed” — contributed to the “extreme gravity of the offences”.
Herrault had argued that the decision to keep the factory open was made out of concern for local staff.
Lafarge, now owned by Swiss conglomerate Holcim, was fined €1.125 million.
MAJOR CEMENT PRODUCER IN NIGERIA
With about 10.5 million metric tonnes per annum of installed cement capacity across its four plants in Nigeria, Lafarge is one of the country’s major cement producers.
In February, the company announced expansion plans for its Ashaka plant in Gombe and Sagamu plant in Ogun.
Upon completion, the Ashaka plant is targeted to reach a total annual capacity of two million metric tonnes while the Sagamu plant aims for 3.5 million metric tonnes.
Last August, Holcim sold its entire 83.81 percent shareholding in Lafarge Africa Plc to Huaxin Cement, a Chinese firm.
The transaction was valued at $1 billion on a 100 percent equity basis, before dividend adjustments.
On Saturday, the federal government published a list of 48 individuals and groups allegedly linked to terrorism financing in Nigeria.
The publication came amid heightened scrutiny of financial networks supporting armed groups and separatist movements, as authorities intensify efforts to disrupt funding channels linked to insecurity across the country.
The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) was named in the report as one of the extremist groups allegedly receiving funding from the individuals listed in the report, some of which included Simon Ekpa, a Finland-based separatist figure associated with a faction of IPOB and Tukur Mamu, a Kaduna-based publisher who is currently facing trial in Nigeria over alleged involvement in terrorism financing.
In Nigeria, IS operates mainly through ISWAP and is notorious for attacks in the north-east and Lake Chad region.
President Bola Tinubu has described terrorism in Africa as “an imported evil”.
