French cement manufacturer Lafarge and eight former executives were found guilty on Monday of financing terrorism in 2013 and 2014, for paying jihadist groups to keep a factory running in the midst of the war in Syria. The company, which has since been merged with Swiss cement manufacturer Holcim group, made payments to three jihadist organisations, including the Islamic State, to the tune of nearly €5.6 million, the Paris Criminal Court established in its judgment. The Court emphasised that the payments had enabled jihadists to “prepare terrorist attacks”, notably those of January 2015 in France. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox “This method of financing terrorist organisations, and primarily the Islamic State, was essential to the terrorist organisation’s control over Syria’s natural resources, enabling it to finance terrorist acts in the area and planned abroad, particularly in Europe,” said the president of the court, Isabelle Prévost-Desprez. Adapted …