Lafarge in court: a critical reflection on the prosecution of Lafarge for terrorism financing and involvement in crimes against humanity.

• In Event: EUROC 4. Organisational Crimes, Wartime and Atrocities

Abstract

In November 2016, Sherpa and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) filed a criminal complaint with the French Public Prosecutor. On behalf of 11 Syrian former employees, these organizations alleged that Lafarge had financed terrorist organizations and thereby had become complicit in crimes against humanity and war crimes. In addition, the company was accused of endangering employees. The prominent cement company Lafarge had continued to operate its factory during the war in North-Syria and had paid large sums of money to, amongst others, Islamic State (IS). In October 2022, in a separate proceeding in the United States, Lafarge pled guilty to providing financial and material support to various terrorist groups via their subsidiary in Syria.

Attention for holding corporations accountable for involvement in atrocity crimes has been on the rise in recent years. The Lafarge case is a prominent and unique example of this trend. In this paper, we investigate criminological explanations for how and why Lafarge became linked to IS and how judicial responses to this involvement can be understood in a broader (international) legal and political context. In addition, we argue how these judicial responses fit within a broader tradition of Eurocentrism in the War on Terror.

Authors

• Annika van Baar, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

• Tasniem Anwar, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam