“French cement maker convicted of financing terror groups to keep its Syria plant working”, 13 April 2026

A French court has fined the cement group Lafarge more than €1m (£870,000) and sentenced its former boss to six years in prison for paying protection money to Islamic State and other terror groups to maintain its business in war-torn Syria from 2013 to 2014…

The Paris court found that Lafarge, which is now part of the Swiss conglomerate Holcim, paid nearly €5.6m via its subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS) to terror groups and intermediaries to keep its plant operating in northern Syria.

The company’s former chief executive, Bruno Lafont, was sentenced to six years in prison for financing terrorism, which a judge ordered him to start serving immediately. Lafont’s lawyer said he would appeal…

While other multinational companies left Syria in 2012, Lafarge evacuated only its expatriate employees and left its Syrian staff in place until September 2014, when IS seized control of the factory…

Holcim, which took over Lafarge in 2015, has said it had no knowledge of the Syria dealings…

Lafarge is also under investigation in France for alleged complicity in crimes against humanity.