Paris (awp) – The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed on Wednesday the indictment of Lafarge for “complicity in crimes against humanity” concerning its activities in Syria between 2012 and 2014. The civil parties welcomed this announcement. The cement manufacturer has decided to appeal to the Court of Cassation.
Lafarge “remains under investigation for these counts” of complicity in crimes against humanity and endangering the lives of others, “in the context of the judicial investigation which is continuing”, according to a press release from the general prosecutor’s office obtained by the AWP agency.
The investigating chamber rejected the request to have the indictment canceled by the company, which merged with Holcim in 2015, on these two grounds.
The French group is suspected of having paid, via a subsidiary, several million euros to terrorist groups, including the Islamic State organization (IS), as well as to intermediaries, in order to maintain the activity of a cement plant in Syria as the country descended into war.
Lafarge contests the judgment
In a statement, Holcim said that “Lafarge will appeal this decision to the Supreme Court”, that is to say that the subsidiary will appeal to the Supreme Court. She has five days to do so, by May 25. Then, the time between the appeal filed and the decision rendered is generally eight to twelve months.
“It is important to specify that this decision is not a judgement”, underlines the Zug multinational. “It is a question of determining the scope of the charges examined”. The building materials giant recalls that “the events that occurred at Lafarge were concealed from our board of directors at the time of the merger in 2015 and are in total contradiction with our values”.
In a joint press release, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Sherpa, “the associations at the origin of the complaint, welcome this judgment which confirms that a company suspected of having knowingly paid several million euros to a criminal organization can be indicted for complicity in crimes against humanity”.
The two NGOs, one based in Berlin and the other in Paris, ensure that “the indictment of a company for complicity in crimes against humanity is a world first”. Lafarge is indicted for four counts, also counting “the financing of a terrorist enterprise” and “the violation of an oil embargo”, recalled Claire Tixeire, legal adviser to ECCHR joined by AWP.
At the end of June 2018, Lafarge had been indicted for these four reasons before requesting its nullity from the Court of Appeal.
In November 2019, the cement manufacturer had obtained from the Paris Court of Appeal the cancellation of his indictment in 2018 for “complicity in crimes against humanity”. But in September 2021, the Court of Cassation, the highest French judicial court, overturned this decision of the Court of Appeal, as well as the maintenance of the group’s indictment for “endangering the lives of others. “. She had referred these two questions to the investigating chamber, but confirmed the indictment of the cement manufacturer for “terrorist financing”.
After reacting strongly to these announcements and falling by more than 3%, the title Holcim has recovered somewhat. The registered ended the session on the Swiss Stock Exchange down 1.3% to 47.23 Swiss francs, almost as much as the flagship SMI index (-1.29%).
ck/al