A court in Paris has found French cement giant, Lafarge, guilty of paying about $6.5m to jihadist groups, including the Islamic State and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.

The ruling marks the first time a company has been tried and convicted in France for financing terrorism.

In Monday’s judgment, the court sentenced Lafarge’s former Chief Executive Officer, Bruno Lafont, to six years in prison for terrorism financing.

Christian Herrault, the company’s former deputy managing director, was also sentenced to five years in prison.

The company acknowledged the court’s findings, stating that the payments occurred more than a decade ago and were in “flagrant violation of Lafarge’s Code of Conduct.”

Lafarge established its cement plant in Syria in 2010, shortly before the Syrian uprising escalated into a civil war.

While most multinational firms withdrew from Syria by 2012, Lafarge reportedly evacuated only its foreign staff while allowing Syrian employees to continue operations at the factory until September 2014.

The factory eventually fell into the hands of Islamic State fighters after they declared a “caliphate” across parts of Syria and Iraq.

Prosecutors told the court that Lafarge used intermediaries to make payments to armed groups to ensure safe passage for employees and trucks transporting cement.

Delivering the judgment, presiding judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez said the payments were meant to keep the company’s factory operational but ended up strengthening terrorist groups.

She said the funds were “essential in enabling the terrorist organisations to gain control of Syria’s natural resources, allowing it to finance terrorist acts within the region and those planned abroad, particularly in Europe.”

The judge added that the amount paid to the armed groups, which had never been publicly disclosed before the trial, contributed to the “extreme gravity of the offences.”

Herrault had argued that the decision to keep the factory open was partly motivated by concern for local employees.

The court also fined Lafarge €1.125m.

Lafarge Operations In Nigeria
Lafarge remains one of Nigeria’s major cement producers, with about 10.5 million metric tonnes of installed cement capacity across four plants in the country.

Earlier this year, the company announced plans to expand its Ashaka plant in Gombe State and the Sagamu plant in Ogun State.

Upon completion, the Ashaka facility is expected to reach an annual capacity of two million metric tonnes, while the Sagamu plant aims for 3.5 million metric tonnes.

In August last year, Lafarge’s parent company, Swiss conglomerate Holcim, sold its entire 83.81 per cent stake in Lafarge Africa Plc to Chinese firm Huaxin Cement.

The deal was valued at $1bn on a 100 per cent equity basis before dividend adjustments.

The court ruling comes amid growing global scrutiny of financial networks suspected of supporting terrorist organisations.