Paris, Dec 16 (AFP) A former CEO of French-Swisscement maker LafargeHolcim said he was made aware of paymentsto the Islamic State group in August 2014, contradicting anaccount by another top executive, a source close to the casesaid today.
Lafarge is accused of paying the terrorist group andother militants USD 12.9 million between 2011 and 2015 so thatthe company's factory in Jalabiya, northern Syria, couldcontinue to operate despite the war.
According to a report commissioned by LafargeHolcimand seen by AFP, Lafarge's Syrian subsidiary Lafarge CementSyria (LCS) paid out some USD 5.6 million between July 2012and September 2014.
Of this, more than half a million dollars went to IS,according to an April report by US consultants Baker McKenzie.
Last week, Bruno Lafont -- chief executive from 2007to 2015 when the company merged with the Swiss buildingsupplies company Holcim, before serving as co-chairman ofLafargeHolcim until April this year -- was charged with"financing a terrorist organisation and "endangering the livesof others".
The group's former Syria chief Christian Herrault andEric Olsen, who took over from Lafont as CEO after the companymerged with Switzerland's Holcim, were also charged with thesame crimes.
Investigators contend that Lafont was aware of themillions of dollars being paid to various armed groupsincluding IS.
The three men have been in detention since December 6.
According to the source, Lafont told judges in ahearing that Herrault announced "an agreement with Daesh (IS)"during a board meeting in August 2014.
"I did not comment at the time, except to say that thedeal was not a good idea," Lafont said, adding that he thendecided to close the plant.
It would eventually fall into the hands of the AbuBakr al-Baghdadi group a few weeks later, on September 19,2014.
Herrault acknowledged earlier this year that Lafargewas involved in a "racket", but that he kept Lafont "regularlyinformed", according to the commissioned report.
Herrault apparently told Lafont about what was goingon in Syria beginning in summer 2012 and of the jihadistpayments in September-October 2013.
Herrault told judges he paid IS "the sum of 5 millionSyrian pounds (USD 20,000) monthly from November 2013,"because "all the stakeholders have to make sure that thisinvestment lasts and works".
"There are many things I did not know and that mayhave been hidden from me," Lafont told the judges.
The former CEO denied having wanted to stay in Syriaat all costs only for a "commercial" reason, seeing as thegroup had spent USD 680 million on its Jalabiya factory a fewyears earlier.
"Obviously an asset of that amount is taken intoaccount but it is not the only thing taken into account,"Lafont said. "A cement factory is very difficult to dismantle(and) our custom is to not let people down".
Lafont told judges he realised in July 2013 that thesituation in Syria had worsened and that the company needed anexit strategy.
"Mr Lafont never expressed doubts or any intention ofclosing the factory to Mr Herrault from that date and untilAugust 2014," Herrault's lawyer Solange Doumic said.
Lafont's lawyer was unavailable for comment.
Lafarge hung on for another 14 months, after mostFrench companies had left as IS made major territorial gains.
Three former officials at the Jalabiya factory werealso charged in the case last week. (AFP)KUN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.