Lafarge in Syria: the Court of Cassation rules Tuesday on the validity of the proceedings

The group, now a subsidiary of Holcim, is suspected of having paid several million euros in 2013 and 2014, via its Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS), to jihadist groups, including the Islamic State (IS) organization. , and to intermediaries, in order to maintain the activity of a cement factory in Jalabiya, even as the country plunged into war.

On this site commissioned in 2010 and which had cost it several hundred million euros, Lafarge had its Syrian employees working until September 2014, exposed to the risks of extortion and kidnapping, even though it had exfiltrated its foreign employees in 2012.

The cement plant was urgently evacuated in September 2014, shortly before ISIS seized it. NGOs and several Syrian employees subsequently filed a complaint.

As part of a judicial investigation opened in 2017, the parent company Lafarge SA was indicted in 2018 for complicity in crimes against humanity - extremely rare for a company - financing a terrorist enterprise and endangering the life of others.

She has since increased her appeals to have the prosecutions canceled.

If the Court of Cassation has definitively validated, in 2021, the indictment for financing a terrorist enterprise, the defense of the French group can still hope to obtain a reprieve on Tuesday from the highest court of the French judicial order for the other two offenses.

“Knowledge” of crimes

During the hearing before the Criminal Chamber on September 19, the Advocate General nevertheless ruled in favor of the total rejection of Lafarge's appeal.

The group contests the judgment rendered on May 18, 2022 by the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal, which confirmed the indictment for these two qualifications.

In this decision, the magistrates concluded that "the Lafarge company was aware that terrorist groups including Daesh (IS, editor's note), to whom it sent regular payments more or less directly, were committing crimes against humanity", " thus allowing them to continue their activities without the need to demonstrate that they were involved in such offenses.

Lafarge asks the Court of Cassation to once again refer the case to the investigating chamber, so that it can rule on the jurisdiction of the French courts regarding complicity in crimes against humanity.

The defense also pleads for the cancellation of his indictment for endangering the lives of others, arguing that French law does not apply to the employment contracts of Syrian employees with the Syrian subsidiary.

If Lafarge loses on these two points on Tuesday, the company would no longer be able to contest its indictments, which would become final.

“The Court of Cassation should allow the Lafarge company to finally be able to answer for its acts committed against its employees and the Syrian population,” said Mr. Joseph Breham, lawyer for the civil parties.

For Me Catherine Bauer-Violas, counsel for former employees, "if the Court of Cassation does not uphold the applicability of French labor law despite the working conditions of Syrian employees over which the company Lafarge SA exercised its management power , we will end up in a strange situation.

Lafarge's lawyers did not wish to comment before the decision.

In this judicial information, in addition to the legal entity, eight executives and directors, including the former CEO of Lafarge Bruno Lafont, but also a Syrian-Canadian intermediary or a former Jordanian risk manager are indicted.

In October 2022, Lafarge, swallowed by the Swiss group Holcim in 2015, announced that it had agreed to pay a financial penalty of $778 million to the United States and to plead guilty to having helped “terrorist” organizations, including the EI group. , between 2013 and 2014.

Key dates in the Lafarge cement case

Reminder of the key dates of the Lafarge affair in Syria as the Court of Cassation rules on Tuesday on the validity of the indictments of the French cement manufacturer for endangering the lives of others and complicity in crimes against humanity.

"Cloudy arrangements"

On June 21, 2016, Le Monde affirmed that the cement manufacturer Lafarge tried, in 2013 and 2014, to operate its factory, located 150 km northeast of Aleppo in Syria, "at all costs." troubled and unspeakable arrangements with surrounding armed groups", including the Islamic State (IS) organization.

LafargeHolcim, resulting from the merger of Lafarge and Switzerland's Holcim in 2015, assures that its "absolute priority" has "always been to ensure the safety and security of its staff".

complaints

At the end of September, Bercy filed a complaint relating in particular to a ban on purchasing oil in Syria, decreed by the European Union as part of a series of sanctions against the regime of Bashar al-Assad and to the ban on any relationship with terrorist organizations present in Syria. The Paris prosecutor's office opens an investigation.

Several associations, including the NGO Sherpa, are also filing complaints.

French management suspected

On June 9, 2017, a judicial investigation was opened. The National Judicial Customs Service (SNDJ) concludes in a report that Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS), the Syrian branch of the group, "made payments to jihadist groups" and that the French management at the time "validated these remittances of funds by producing false accounting documents.

"Complicity in crimes against humanity"

At the beginning of December, two former directors of the Syrian subsidiary, Bruno Pescheux and Frédéric Jolibois, as well as the group's security director, Jean-Claude Veillard, were indicted for "financing a terrorist enterprise" and "endangering of the lives of others.

Then, it was the turn of Bruno Lafont, CEO of Lafarge from 2007 to 2015 and several other leaders. In total, eight executives are indicted.

On June 28, 2018, Lafarge was indicted in particular for an extremely rare accusation of “complicity in crimes against humanity”. And also “financing a terrorist enterprise, “endangering the lives” of former Syrian employees and “violating an embargo”.

Procedural twists

The group and three leaders appealed against this decision of the judges and, on November 7, 2019, the court of appeal annulled the indictment for “complicity in crimes against humanity”.

But in September 2021, the Court of Cassation, the highest French judicial court, overturned this decision and in May 2022, after a return to the investigating chamber, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed the indictment of the group for “complicity in crimes against humanity” and “endangering the lives of others”.

Lafarge files an appeal. The Court of Cassation rules once again on Tuesday on the validity of these indictments.