Swiss-owned Lafarge faces fresh lawsuit over Syria IS bribes
French cement manufacturer Lafarge, which now belongs to Swiss company Holcim, has again been summoned to court over its actions in Syria.
The lawsuit against Lafarge was filed in a federal court in New York by a group called Yazidi Americans, as reported by the Reuters news agency.
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Lafarge was previously accused of having paid bribes to the terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS) in 2013 and 2014 to maintain production at its cement factory in Syria. The French cement manufacturer was taken over in 2015 by its Swiss competitor Holcim.
In the autumn of 2022, Lafarge agreed to a $778 million settlement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
Yazidis with US citizenship are now filing a lawsuit against the French cement manufacturer. The religious minority was violently expelled and exploited from their home area of Sinjar in northern Iraq by IS.
It has been known since 2016 that IS committed genocide against the minority religious group.
“Before, during and after the period in which ISIS carried out these brutal attacks on the Yazidis, the defendants paid and conspired with ISIS,” states the lawsuit against Lafarge, obtained by Reuters. The plaintiff community includes the Yazidi Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, who herself was a victim of IS.
A Lafarge spokesman confirmed the filing of the lawsuit to the AWP news agency. The matter is a legacy issue. Back in July of this year, families of American soldiers killed by ISIS filed a similar lawsuit against Lafarge.
A trial is also underway in Paris in connection with terrorist financing in Syria. France’s highest court held a hearing in this ongoing case in November but delayed its verdict until January 16, 2024.
Lafarge is accused of complicity in crimes against humanity and endangering the lives of its Syrian employees. The procedure is still a kind of preliminary trial in which the charges are determined. Only then can the main process begin.
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