War and business: Lafarge in the dock

Special focus 6 publications
The Lafarge trial, which is being held from November 4 to December 19, 2025, in a court in Paris, is addressing unusual questions about the criminal liability of companies operating in war zones. The French cement manufacturer, as a legal entity, is accused of financing terrorist organizations in Syria. Eight of its former executives, managers, and intermediaries are also called to the stand. Justice Info offers exceptional coverage—through journalistic insights, analytical op-eds, and monitoring by political science students—of this extraordinary trial.
Illustration: © Al Mata / Justice Info
Illustration showing a concrete mixer truck (with the Lafarge logo printed on it) stopped at a checkpoint manned by several figures dressed in black, armed and wearing balaclavas. A long arm extends from the truck, holding a suitcase filled with banknotes bearing the image of Bashar al-Assad. On the side is an ISIS flag.
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The French company Lafarge (cement) and its executives are on trial in France. They are accused of participating in the financing of terrorist groups in Syria. Photo: aerial view of the Lafarge factory in Jalabiya, Syria.
Lafarge faces justice for financing terrorism
3 November 2025 by Chloé Dubois
The Lafarge trial opens on Tuesday 4 November in Paris. The French cement manufacturer is in the dock, as a legal entity, along with eight former executives, managers and intermediaries, for financing terrorism in Syria.
Lafarge The good and the bad about Lafarge case
26 January 2024 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
There is the Lundin trial going on in Sweden. And there is the Lafarge case slowly moving forward in France. These are arguably the two most high-profile trials for alleged international crimes by prominent corporations and/or cor [...]
3D image illustrating the construction project of the Paris court (office buildings). In the foreground, the logos of several companies (Lafarge, BNP Paribas, Uniqlo, Amesys and Castel group) are embedded in bubbles. Lafarge and the judicial twists and turns of corporate liability in France
5 July 2022 by Lena Bjurström
Since 2016, the Lafarge case seems to have been stretched out over the years and the appeals. But its many twists and turns raise questions about complicity in crimes against humanity, the place of a company as a defendant and the [...]
Illustration (double portrait) by Joanna Kyriakakis and Mark Drumbl “No one really wants corporations to be liable”
21 June 2022 by Thierry Cruvellier and Clémentine Méténier
JUSTICE INFO IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS Joanna Kyriakakis & Mark Drumbl Why international courts have been so impotent at prosecuting businessmen? Why international law has shielded companies from responsibility in atrocity crimes? W [...]
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A scale whose weight tilts to one side (multiple logos of multinationals: Total, Ericsson, Lundin, Exxon Mobil, Lafarge). On the other side, the text
20 June 2022 by Clémentine Méténier
Business and human rights: the pressure is mounting   There are a growing number of criminal proceedings aimed at holding multinational companies accountable for their direct or indirect role in international crimes or serious human rights violations. These include complicity in war [...]
15 November 2019 by Julia Crawford
Corporate responsibility in war crimes, a new legal battlefield NGOs suffered a big setback last week when a French court dismissed a charge against Lafarge of complicity in crimes against humanity in Syria. But they are increasingly active in trying to get companies and businessmen prosecuted [...]