The French cement manufacturer Lafarge and eight former executives were found guilty by a Paris court on Monday of financing terrorism in 2013 and 2014.
Lafarge, now owned by Swiss cement giant Holcim, made payments totalling nearly €5.6 million to three jihadist groups, including Islamic State (IS), according to the court ruling.
The court stated these payments enabled the preparation of terrorist attacks, notably the January 2015 attacks in France.
The head of the court, Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, emphasised that financing IS had been critical to the group’s control over Syria’s natural resources, which allowed it to fund attacks both within the region and abroad, particularly in Europe.
