Paris (AFP)

Nearly a year and a half after being indicted for "financing of terrorism" and "complicity in crimes against humanity" in Syria, Lafarge cement maker will know this Thursday if the Paris Court of Appeal upholds these lawsuits. he challenges.

The investigating chamber examined on June 20 the motions filed by the group as well as those of three executives - the ex-CEO Bruno Lafont, his former director Security Jean-Claude Veillard and one of the former directors of the Syrian subsidiary, Frédéric Jolibois- to obtain the nullity of their indictment.

In this case, eight executives or leaders in total were indicted for "financing of terrorism" and / or "endangering" in this judicial information opened in June 2017, one year after revelations of the newspaper Le Monde. At the end of 2016, Bercy, then the NGOs Sherpa and the European Center for Constitutional Rights and Human Rights (ECCHR) had filed suit.

In June 2018, Lafarge was in turn prosecuted for "complicity in crimes against humanity", "financing of terrorism", "violation of an embargo" and "endangering life" of former employees of his factory from Jalabiya (north).

In this extraordinary case, Lafarge SA, owner of Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS), is suspected of having paid in 2013 and 2014, through this subsidiary, nearly 13 million euros to jihadist groups, including the state organization Islamic Republic (IS), and intermediaries to maintain the activity of its site in Syria, while the country sank into the war.

The group is also suspected of selling cement from the plant to IS and paying intermediaries to buy raw materials from jihadist factions.

If the existence of remittances to "armed groups" came out of an internal investigation report, Lafarge SA denies any responsibility in the destination of these payments to terrorist organizations and rejects accusations of "complicity in crimes against humanity. "

- Reliability of the investigation -

Before the investigating chamber, the cement industry's defense inter alia attacked the reliability of the investigations, carried out from open sources, including UN reports, considering that such an indictment should result from an investigation " thorough ".

The Advocate General supported these arguments. In his written submissions, which AFP was able to consult, he considered that there was "no serious and concordant evidence" that former civilian employees "would have been victims" of the "complicity of crimes against humanity" blamed on Lafarge.

According to Sherpa, this incrimination was also based on "direct evidence", provided by the testimonies of former employees of the Syrian site of Lafarge. Some crimes of which they were victims were committed "within the framework of the concerted plan applied by the EI for the systematic attacks" of civilians, "thus characterizing the crime against humanity, considers the NGO.

On the other hand, the Advocate General asked to confirm the indictments of Lafarge and the three leaders for "financing of terrorism" and to validate the presence on the file of several civil parties, including those of Sherpa.

Since the hearing in June, investigating investigating judges have indicted for "Terrorist Financing" an additional person, the Syro-Canadian Amro Taleb, suspected of having served as an intermediary between the cement Lafarge and terrorist groups in Syria. Formerly subject to an arrest warrant, he is now under judicial control.

© 2019 AFP