A French court has focused its latest hearing on how cement company Lafarge negotiated with armed groups in Syria while continuing its operations there in 2013 and 2014.

Lafarge and eight former executives are on trial in Paris, accused of financing terrorism during Syria’s civil war.

The company is charged as a legal entity.

During the hearing, judges questioned defendants about reported “negotiations” between Lafarge’s Syrian subsidiary and various militant groups, including ISIS (Daesh).

Former Lafarge CEO Bruno Lafont said he would have shut down the Syrian plant earlier if he had known about the contacts.

“Until Aug. 27, 2014, I never suspected that payments had been made to terrorist organizations,” he said.

Bruno Pescheux, former CEO of Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS) between 2008 and 2014 and also a defendant, explained that at the time, his only concern was ensuring that the factory’s trucks could continue operating.

“These payments (made to terrorist organizations) were intended to allow our employees to move around freely,” he said.

Pescheux confirmed that Syrian defendant Firas Tlass—acting as an intermediary between Lafarge and armed groups—had held multiple meetings with members of the ISIS terrorist group.

Commenting on a payment breakdown found in an email, he said: “I had no means to verify whether the groups listed actually received the amounts indicated.”

Jordanian Ahmad Al Jaloudi, a former security manager for Lafarge in Syria and a defendant, said: “(Bashir Hadad, Tlass’s representative in the region) was my contact for resolving all my problems, including with Daesh.”

Regarding a meeting he held with an ISIS member in November 2013, Al Jaloudi stated: “The aim was to obtain information about nine trucks whose movement had been blocked.”

Christian Herrault, Lafarge’s former deputy director general of operations responsible for Syria, noted that payments to armed groups had begun in October 2012.

Herrault emphasized that Lafont had been aware of the negotiations with the groups.

“I told him that the negotiations had taken place,” he said.

Frederic Jolibois, Lafarge Cement Syria’s CEO between 2014 and 2016, argued that the negotiations with the groups had taken place under intense pressure.

In 2021, Anadolu published documents it said proved Lafarge had financed ISIS with the knowledge of French intelligence services.

The documents indicated that Lafarge regularly briefed French authorities about its contacts with the group.

According to the reports, no intelligence or government body warned Lafarge that its actions amounted to financing terrorism, and ISIS used Lafarge cement to build shelters and tunnels.

The judicial investigation into Lafarge began in 2017, and several senior executives, including Lafont, were charged with financing terrorism.

In October 2024, three investigating judges ruled that Lafarge and four former executives would face trial for financing a terrorist organization and breaching a European Union embargo prohibiting any financial or commercial dealings with terrorist groups, including ISIS. (AA)

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