The trial against Lafarge and eight individuals on charges of financing terrorism and violating international sanctions began on 4 November, at the Paris Criminal Court.
After two days of hearings addressing constitutional and procedural matters, the court decided to postpone the trial until November 18th.
On November 5th, the defense submitted no fewer than 13 motions, including requests to nullify the proceedings, challenges to procedural irregularities, objections to the court’s jurisdiction, and calls for additional investigation, among others.
One particular issue caught the court’s attention: The charges against Bruno Pescheux, former director of Lafarge’s Syrian subsidiary (LCS), encompassed a longer period than originally specified in the indictment. His actions as the former director had been added later, extending the alleged offenses from July 2014 to September 2014. After reviewing the matter, the court identified irregularities in the order referring the case to the criminal court and instructed that the file be returned to the public prosecutor and then to the investigating judge for correction.
To accommodate these adjustments, the court decided to postpone the trial to November 18th, scheduling additional hearing days and lengthening daily sessions to ensure the proceedings conclude by December 19th.
This approach prevents the trial from being postponed indefinitely — a situation that could have resulted in further months of delay after nine long years of proceedings. Remarkably, it was in 2016 that Sherpa and the ECCHR, together with eleven Syrian plaintiffs, first filed the complaint.
Since the events occurred more than ten years ago, and the Syrian employees involved faced serious risks and threats to their lives, access to justice must not be delayed any further.
Sherpa and ECCHR will be present when the trial resumes on November 18th.
