French cement manufacturer found guilty of financing jihadists in Syria

A Paris court has found French cement maker Lafarge guilty in a long-running case over payments made to armed groups in Syria to keep its plant operating during the civil war.

Reuters-based reporting on Monday said the court also convicted former executives in the case. The judgment marks a major step in one of Europe’s most closely watched corporate criminal cases tied to the war in Syria.

The case concerns payments made between 2013 and 2014 at Lafarge’s Jalabiya cement plant in Syria. According to the reporting, the company was accused of financing terrorism and breaching sanctions by dealing with armed groups, including Islamic State.

Holcim’s annual report had already noted that the French criminal court judgment was due on April 13, 2026. The U.S. Department of Justice separately said in 2022 that Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syria pleaded guilty in the United States to conspiring to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations in Syria.

Details on the full sentence and whether Lafarge or the convicted executives will appeal were not immediately clear in the available reporting.