Cement group Lafarge has been ordered to face trial in France on charges of financing jihadist terrorism by continuing to operate a cement factory in Syria until 2014, sources close to the case told AFP on Wednesday.
Eight individuals, including former CEO Bruno Lafont, will also face the same charges.
They are accused of having "organised, validated, facilitated or implemented a policy presuming to send financing to terrorist organisations established around the cement factory" in the Syrian town of Jalabiya, according to the referral consulted by AFP.
Defence lawyers for the company and the defendants declined to comment or could not be reached.
The company, which has since been acquired by Swiss conglomerate Holcim, is suspected of paying five million euros (now $5.5 million) in 2013 and 2014, via its subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS), to jihadist networks including the Islamic State group and to intermediaries to keep the plant operating, even as the country was sinking into war.
The referral says the company had "decisional autonomy" throughout the period and could have closed the plant at any moment, especially after learning that its payments were going to militant groups.
In return for the payments, local militias allowed free movement for the company's trucks and employees.
Besides Lafont, the defendants include operational managers, security officials and Syrian middlemen.
But the investigative magistrates dropped charges against Jean-Claude Veillard, Lafarge's former director of security, who had been under investigation since the end of 2017.
Another investigation into Lafarge's alleged complicity with crimes against humanity is still ongoing.
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Holcim Group