The French judiciary decided on Tuesday to reconsider on November 21 the appeal submitted by the French cement company Lafarge to challenge the charge of endangering Syrian employees and complicity in crimes against humanity during the Syrian conflict between 2021 and 2014.

The Court of Cassation, the highest judicial body in France, which was scheduled to rule on this case on Tuesday, wants to re-examine the evidence after the defense raised a legal point related to endangering the lives of others, according to a decision seen by Agence France-Presse.

It is suspected that during the years 2013 and 2014, the company, which has now become a subsidiary of the Holcim Group, paid, through its Syrian branch, “Lafarge Cement Syria,” millions of euros to jihadist groups, including especially the Islamic State, and to intermediaries, in order to continue operating its cement factory in Syria in the Jalabiya area. At a time when the country was engulfed in war.

Lafarge kept its Syrian employees working in the factory until September 2014, while it had evacuated its foreign employees in 2012.

Regarding Syrian employees, the parent company, Lafarge SA, clarified that “only Syrian law applies to the employment relationship.” However, it stressed that endangering the lives of others cannot be based on violating the obligation of caution stipulated in a foreign law, but exclusively on French law.

As part of a judicial investigation that began in 2017, the parent company, Lafarge SA, was charged in 2018 with complicity in crimes against humanity, financing a terrorist project, and endangering the lives of others.

Although the Court of Cassation finally ratified in 2021 the indictment for financing a terrorist project, the defense of the French group can still hope to obtain a suspended sentence for the other two crimes.