French-Swiss Company Admits Funding Terrorist Groups in Syria

PARIS- French-Swiss construction company LafargeHolcim Group has admitted funding militants in Syria. The company said it had funded the militants in order to ensure the security of its employees at a plant in north-eastern Syria, according to Le Monde newspaper.

“It appears from the [internal] investigation that the local company provided funds to third parties to work out arrangements with a number of armed groups in order to maintain operations and ensure safe passage of employees and supplies to and from the plant. The investigation could not establish with certainty the ultimate recipients of funds beyond those third parties engaged,” the company said in a press release.

 According to the document, the branch management seemed to have acted the way they did hoping to protect the company and its employees, although “in hindsight, the measures required to continue operations at the plant were unacceptable.”

In June 2016, Le Monde said the Lafarge cement factory financed Daesh between spring 2013 and September 2014: the board paid taxes to Daesh terrorists, who had captured neighboring towns and roads, to ensure the enterprise’s work during the war in Syria.

The plant stopped its work in Syria on September 19, 2014.

Sputnik

H.M