Can a company be considered an “accomplice in crimes against humanity” committed in a country where it has decided to continue to operate, despite the signals?

The Court of Cassation examines on Tuesday crucial points of the investigation into the activities of the cement company Lafarge in Syria until 2014.

More than a year and a half after the annulment by the Paris Court of Appeal of the group's indictment for "complicity in crimes against humanity", the highest court of the judiciary will look into six appeals lodged in this extraordinary case, in which the cement manufacturer is still being sued for “financing of terrorism”.

Disputed prosecutions

On the one hand, Lafarge and two former managers of the group, the former director of corporate security Jean-Claude Veillard and one of the former directors of the Syrian subsidiary, Frédéric Jolibois, are contesting the lawsuits against them.

On the other hand, associations defend their right to be civil parties in the case, and former Lafarge employees in Syria are fighting against the invalidation of the indictment of the cement manufacturer for "complicity in crimes against humanity".

In this judicial investigation, opened in June 2017 after complaints from Bercy as well as from Sherpa and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), Lafarge SA, owner of Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS), is suspected of having paid in 2013 and 2014, via this subsidiary, nearly 13 million euros to terrorist groups, including Daesh, and to intermediaries, in order to maintain the activity of its site in Syria while the country s 'was sinking into war.

The group is also suspected of selling cement from the factory to Daesh and paying middlemen to source raw materials from jihadist factions.

An internal report commissioned by LafargeHolcim, born from the merger in 2015 of the French Lafarge and the Swiss Holcim, had highlighted the remittances of LCS funds to intermediaries to negotiate with "armed groups".

But Lafarge SA has always disputed any responsibility for the destination of these payments to terrorist organizations.

In June 2018, while eight executives and leaders of the group were already subject to prosecution, Parisian investigating judges had indicted the group as a legal person for "complicity in crimes against humanity", "financing of a terrorist company ”,“ violation of an embargo ”and“ endangering the lives ”of former employees of its factory in Jalabiya, in northern Syria.

The investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal, seized by Lafarge, had in November 2019 invalidated the “complicity in crimes against humanity” targeting the cement manufacturer, but maintained the “financing of a terrorist company” in his respect as well as that of three former leaders.

It also declared inadmissible the civil party constitutions of four complainant associations, namely Sherpa, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), the Coordination of Eastern Christians in Danger (Chredo) and Life for Paris, which brings together victims of the November 13 attacks.

What qualification?

Before the Court of Cassation, which examines the case only on the form and not the facts, the relevance of these very heavy criminal qualifications in this case will therefore be debated.

At the heart of the discussions in particular, the choice between "financing a terrorist enterprise", an offense for which it is necessary to demonstrate having financed terrorist acts knowingly but without necessarily having had a precise motive in mind, and "complicity in crimes against humanity ”, which requires a much more concrete particular intention, with knowledge of and adherence to a more precise criminal project.

The magistrates of the Court of Cassation will also have to consider the concept of “serious and concordant indices”, necessary to justify the other indictments.

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  • Terrorism

  • Justice

  • Daesh

  • Syria

  • Lafarge