21 May 2022; MEMO: A French appeals court confirms a charge of complicity in crimes against humanity against the cement group, Lafarge, over alleged payoffs to the Daesh terror group during Syria's civil war, France 24 reports.
According to the report, a court in Paris has indicted the French company, Lafarge, for their "complicity in crimes against humanity" in Syria.
France's highest court had overturned, in September 2021, a decision by a lower court to dismiss charges against the company for wrongdoings in Syria's civil war, the report added.
Lafarge is a French industrial company that specialises in cement, concrete and construction aggregates.
The appeals acknowledged that it paid nearly $13.7 million to middlemen to keep its Syrian cement factory running in 2013 and 2014, long after other French firms had pulled out of the country.
The company contends that it had no responsibility for the money winding up in the hands of terrorist groups.
CEO, Bruno Laffont, along with eight Lafarge executives, are also charged in the case. The formal complaints are financing a terrorist group and endangering the lives of others.
France 24 says Lafarge has also been charged with deliberately endangering the lives of its Syrian employees.
