Nadia Murad leads Yazidis in lawsuit against French company

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Hundreds of Yazidis on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Lafarge in a bid to hold the French industrial company accountable for providing material support to the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq during the group’s reign of terror.

The plaintiffs are a group of Yazidis led by Nobel laureate Nadia Murad who are survivors of ISIS violence in their homeland and the Yazidi heartland of Shingal.

The lawsuit seeks to hold Lafarge accountable for “its admitted criminal conspiracy with ISIS and to obtain justice for Yazidi people,” according to a statement from lawyers for the plaintiffs.

In October 2022, Paris-based Lafarge pled guilty to having negotiated deals with armed factions in the Syrian civil war, including ISIS and al-Nusra Front, to ensure the continued operation of a cement plant in Syria despite the outbreak of war. A federal court in New York ordered Lafarge and its Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS) to pay financial penalties totaling $777.78 million. 

Despite pleading guilty and agreeing to pay the penalty to the United States, none of the money was used to pay compensation for the victims and their families.

“It is shocking that a leading global corporation worked hand in hand with ISIS while ISIS was executing American civilians and committing genocide against Yazidis,” human rights lawyer and representative of the plaintiffs, Amal Clooney, said in a statement.

“We hope that this case will send a clear message that supporting terrorists cannot be ‘business as usual’ and that there will be justice for the victims,” she added.

According to the complaint filed by the plaintiffs, Lafarge breached the US anti-terrorism act that holds accountable those who provide support to, aid, and abet, a “foreign terrorist organization.”

Nadia Murad, who was abducted by ISIS during the genocide the group committed against Yazidis in Shingal, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 and is an advocate for survivors of violence.

“Unfortunately, my story is not unique among Yazidis. It is the reality of thousands of Yazidi women. Even more tragic is that our horror took place under the awareness of and thanks to the support of powerful corporations like Lafarge,” she said in a statement. 

From August 2013 to October 2014, Lafarge and LCS made approximately $70.3 million in sales revenue. During that time it paid $5.92 million to ISIS and al-Nusra Front and $1.11 million to third-party intermediaries. ISIS obtained an additional $3.21 million after it took possession of the cement plant when LCS abandoned it in September 2014.

ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. Years later, however, thousands of Yazidis are still living in difficult conditions in camps, unable to return to their homes because of insecurity and lack of reconstruction.