Did French diplomats know that cement group Lafarge was paying the Islamic State group to keep its Syria factory open? A former executive has claimed this was the case, prompting fresh scrutiny from investigators.
Lafarge is accused of paying around $15 million (12 million euros) between 2011 and 2015 to armed groups including IS so that its factory in Jalabiya, northern Syria, could continue to operate despite the war. The payments were allegedly routed through middlemen.
The revelations are particularly embarrassing for a country which has suffered the heaviest losses among European countries struck by attacks claimed or inspired by the Islamic State.
Paris is also the second-largest contributor to the US-led coalition formed in 2014 to drive the jihadist group out of Syria and Iraq.
For two years after most French companies had left Syria, Lafarge hung on to the site until September 2014, when it was seized by IS.
Since June, three French judges have been investigating indirect money transfers by the company's Syrian subsidiary to IS and other militant groups in Syria.
Former CEO Bruno Lafont, along with the group's former Syria director Christian Herrault and Eric Olsen, who took over as CEO when Lafarge merged with Switzerland's Holcim, have been charged with financing a terrorist organisation and endangering the lives of others.
On January 9, investigators questioned Herrault in the presence of France's former ambassador to Syria, Eric Chevallier, a source close to the inquiry told AFP.
Chevallier, who arrived in Damas in 2009, closed the embassy in March 2012 but remained ambassador, stationed in Paris, until 2014.
Herrault said he had met several times with Chevallier, who "knew about the shakedown," saying "'You should stay, these problems won't last long'."
Chevallier told the investigating judges that "he did not remember these meetings," the source said.
- 'Urged to stay' -
In total, six former Lafarge executives have been charged, including the factory chief Bruno Pescheux, who has also claimed that "contacts" were made with the French embassy in Damascus.
Jean-Claude Veillard, the group's former security boss, has said he regularly informed French intelligence services about its operations in the region.
Investigators have also found evidence of meetings between Lafarge and diplomats, including a note suggesting that one took place in Paris on January 29, 2013.
"Did they push Lafarge to stay in Syria to prepare the post-Bashar Al-Assad era, to the point of endangering its Syrian workers, the only ones at the factory after 2012?" a source close to the case said.
"Were diplomats aware of the illicit payments? If so, did they wait too long to sound the alarm?"
In a report by Herrault on the Syria situation from 2012 to 2015, which has been found by investigators, he writes: "We have always been urged to stay (and) the only worry expressed (by French authorities) was not to do anything that might 'annoy' the Turks."
"We tried to tell them that the Turks had the same goals on the ground as the most extreme Islamists which later became Daesh (Islamic State) but they couldn't understand that in Paris, at least not at the time," he wrote.
Chevallier called the report "a complete lie", a source said, saying the foreign ministry had warned all French individuals and businesses to leave Syria in 2012.
- Written proof? -
"That applied only to French workers, who were indeed brought home in 2012. They were never asked to close the factory; otherwise they would have done so," said Herrault's lawyer Solange Doumic.
And a diplomatic memo obtained from September 2014 acknowledges that Lafarge was at the mercy of the "balancing act between the Damas regime, Kurdish forces and the Islamic State," though it notes that the cement factory's boss claimed it had "paid nothing" to IS.
"Proving a potential implication of the French authorities could be hard because nothing was ever written down," Doumic acknowledged.
"But Paris needs to assume the stances it took at the time."
Sherpa, an NGO representing about a dozen former Syrian employees at the site, has asked judges to question Laurent Fabius, foreign minister from 2012 to 2016 under the former Socialist government of president Francois Hollande.
"They tell us that Lafarge was never brought up with him. But it's astonishing that he wouldn't have paid attention to the only French company working in a strategic country," Doumic said.
A foreign ministry source told AFP that it "has not been accused in any way" as part of the inquiry.
"No collusion with terrorist groups is condoned in any form, in Syria or anywhere else in the world," the source said.
Did French diplomats know that cement group Lafarge was paying the Islamic State group to keep its Syria factory open? A former executive has claimed this was the case, prompting fresh scrutiny from investigators.
Lafarge is accused of paying around $15 million (12 million euros) between 2011 and 2015 to armed groups including IS so that its factory in Jalabiya, northern Syria, could continue to operate despite the war. The payments were allegedly routed through middlemen.
The revelations are particularly embarrassing for a country which has suffered the heaviest losses among European countries struck by attacks claimed or inspired by the Islamic State.
Paris is also the second-largest contributor to the US-led coalition formed in 2014 to drive the jihadist group out of Syria and Iraq.
For two years after most French companies had left Syria, Lafarge hung on to the site until September 2014, when it was seized by IS.
Since June, three French judges have been investigating indirect money transfers by the company’s Syrian subsidiary to IS and other militant groups in Syria.
Former CEO Bruno Lafont, along with the group’s former Syria director Christian Herrault and Eric Olsen, who took over as CEO when Lafarge merged with Switzerland’s Holcim, have been charged with financing a terrorist organisation and endangering the lives of others.
On January 9, investigators questioned Herrault in the presence of France’s former ambassador to Syria, Eric Chevallier, a source close to the inquiry told AFP.
Chevallier, who arrived in Damas in 2009, closed the embassy in March 2012 but remained ambassador, stationed in Paris, until 2014.
Herrault said he had met several times with Chevallier, who “knew about the shakedown,” saying “‘You should stay, these problems won’t last long’.”
Chevallier told the investigating judges that “he did not remember these meetings,” the source said.
– ‘Urged to stay’ –
In total, six former Lafarge executives have been charged, including the factory chief Bruno Pescheux, who has also claimed that “contacts” were made with the French embassy in Damascus.
Jean-Claude Veillard, the group’s former security boss, has said he regularly informed French intelligence services about its operations in the region.
Investigators have also found evidence of meetings between Lafarge and diplomats, including a note suggesting that one took place in Paris on January 29, 2013.
“Did they push Lafarge to stay in Syria to prepare the post-Bashar Al-Assad era, to the point of endangering its Syrian workers, the only ones at the factory after 2012?” a source close to the case said.
“Were diplomats aware of the illicit payments? If so, did they wait too long to sound the alarm?”
In a report by Herrault on the Syria situation from 2012 to 2015, which has been found by investigators, he writes: “We have always been urged to stay (and) the only worry expressed (by French authorities) was not to do anything that might ‘annoy’ the Turks.”
“We tried to tell them that the Turks had the same goals on the ground as the most extreme Islamists which later became Daesh (Islamic State) but they couldn’t understand that in Paris, at least not at the time,” he wrote.
Chevallier called the report “a complete lie”, a source said, saying the foreign ministry had warned all French individuals and businesses to leave Syria in 2012.
– Written proof? –
“That applied only to French workers, who were indeed brought home in 2012. They were never asked to close the factory; otherwise they would have done so,” said Herrault’s lawyer Solange Doumic.
And a diplomatic memo obtained from September 2014 acknowledges that Lafarge was at the mercy of the “balancing act between the Damas regime, Kurdish forces and the Islamic State,” though it notes that the cement factory’s boss claimed it had “paid nothing” to IS.
“Proving a potential implication of the French authorities could be hard because nothing was ever written down,” Doumic acknowledged.
“But Paris needs to assume the stances it took at the time.”
Sherpa, an NGO representing about a dozen former Syrian employees at the site, has asked judges to question Laurent Fabius, foreign minister from 2012 to 2016 under the former Socialist government of president Francois Hollande.
“They tell us that Lafarge was never brought up with him. But it’s astonishing that he wouldn’t have paid attention to the only French company working in a strategic country,” Doumic said.
A foreign ministry source told AFP that it “has not been accused in any way” as part of the inquiry.
“No collusion with terrorist groups is condoned in any form, in Syria or anywhere else in the world,” the source said.
