The Paris court found that Lafarge paid nearly €5.6 million via its subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria to terror groups and intermediaries to keep its plant operating in northern Syria, according to court documents. Lafarge paid intermediaries in 2013 and 2014 to access raw materials from Islamic State and other groups and to allow free movement for its trucks and employees, the court stated. The company paid groups including Islamic State and Syria's then al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, as per the ruling. According to presiding judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez, Lafarge established a genuine commercial partnership with Islamic State.
During the Syrian conflict, Lafarge evacuated only its expatriate employees and left its Syrian staff in place until September 2014, when Islamic State seized control of the factory, court records show. While other multinational companies left Syria in 2012, Lafarge remained until 2014, according to testimony. Former Syrian Lafarge employees told the court how their daily lives were marked by fear of dismissal, bombings, kidnappings, crossing areas under sniper fire, having to pass through checkpoints, and the constant risk of reprisals from armed groups.
Human rights groups Sherpa and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, who filed a complaint in the case alongside former Syrian employees of Lafarge, said the ruling marked a major turning point in the fight for corporate accountability. Sherpa and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights said the Syrian employees were still waiting for compensation.
The ruling follows a 2022 case in the United States in which Lafarge pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to US-designated terrorist organisations and agreed to pay a $778 million fine, according to court filings. Lafarge is now part of the Swiss conglomerate Holcim, as reported by company statements.
Lafarge finished building a $680 million factory in Jalabiya in 2010, just before Syria's civil war erupted in March 2011, based on historical records. Islamic State seized large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, implementing brutal control of local areas, according to conflict analysts.