“Lafarge trial concludes: Prosecutors request all defendants to be found guilty”, 19 December 2025

…After six weeks of hearings, the landmark criminal trial against French multinational Lafarge and several of its former executives has concluded at the Paris Criminal Court. The verdict will be delivered on April 13th, 2026, almost a decade after ECCHR and Sherpa, together with former Syrian employees, first filed the case. The company Lafarge, four former top executives, and four managers and intermediaries, are accused of having transferred € 4,7 million to terrorist groups – notably to the Islamic State – in Syria in 2013-2014 to keep its cement plant operating.

In their closing arguments, the Anti-Terrorism Prosecutors urged the court to find all defendants guilty. They requested the maximum fine for Lafarge as a company, prison sentences of up to eight years – including six years for former CEO of the group, Bruno Lafont – and bans on holding commercial positions…

This trial highlighted the crimes against humanity and genocide committed against the Yezidis by the Islamic State during the period of Lafarge’s financing, making its potential complicity in these crimes an increasingly urgent issue for the courts to decide. Lafarge remains formally charged with complicity in crimes against humanity in ongoing judicial investigations…