Latest News

French cement maker Lafarge to face trial on terrorism funding charges

storyp1> PARIS, Oct 17 (Reuters) Cement maker Holcim's Lafarge will deal with trial in a French court on charges that its Syrian subsidiary financed terrorism and breached European sanctions in order to keep a plant operating, France's antiterrorism district attorney and a lead complainant said.

Lafarge, which became part of Swiss-listed Holcim in 2015, has actually been the topic of an investigation into its operations in Syria given that 2016, one of the most comprehensive business criminal proceedings in current French legal history.

Investigative judges in Paris gave the order Lafarge face trial on Wednesday.

In a declaration to Reuters on Thursday, Lafarge stated it acknowledged the choice of the investigating judges.

Holcim shares fell almost 2% in late Wednesday trading after the news, before recovering a little to close 0.7% lower.

Examinations continue into claims that Lafarge was complicit in criminal offenses versus humankind, part of the broader probe into how the group kept its factory running in Syria after war broke out in 2011, said the anti-corruption group Sherpa, which brought the criminal problem versus Lafarge.

France's greatest court in January turned down a request from Lafarge that charges of complicity in criminal offenses versus mankind be dropped from the investigation.

The sanctions breach charges connect to a European ban on financial or commercial links to Islamist militant groups Islamic State and Al-Nusra, Sherpa stated.

In a different examination in the United States, Lafarge confessed in 2022 that its Syrian subsidiary paid groups designated by Washington as terrorists, consisting of Islamic State, to assist protect staff at the plant in a nation shaken by years of civil war.


(source: Reuters)