Ilayda Cakirtekin
14 April 2026•Update: 14 April 2026
The lawyer for Bruno Lafont, the former CEO of French cement company Lafarge, on Tuesday denounced the six-year prison sentence he got for financing terrorist groups, including ISIS (Daesh), and vowed an appeal.
Speaking to France Info, Jacqueline Laffont described the sentence as “neither fair nor reasonable” and criticized what she called her client’s “brutal imprisonment.”
“It will be neither the first nor the last time that a decision by lower court judges is overturned by appeal court judges,” she added.
The lawyer also argued that the ruling came from value judgments and peremptory assertions that were unproven and “without evidence.”
A French court on Monday found cement giant Lafarge, its former CEO Lafont, and seven other executives guilty of financing terrorism over payments made to armed groups, including ISIS, during the Syrian civil war.
Lafont was sentenced to six years in prison. The court also imposed a €225,000 ($265,500) fine.
