Holcim is continuing to collaborate with the French judicial authorities, which interviewed a representative of Lafarge SA on 29 November 2021, for the second time since 2018, according to a press release.
The development follows France’s highest court, the Cour de cassation, ruling that Lafarge’s previous indictment for complicity in crimes against humanity was wrongly cancelled by the Paris Appeals Court. In 2019, Lafarge had successfully appealed this charge, but as a result of the decision, the appeals court has to revisit this case.
Beat Hess, chairman of the board of Holcim, represented Lafarge SA in the court hearing. At the closing of the interview, he said: “I cannot comment on the details of the case as the investigation is ongoing. What I can say is that all the alleged charges against Lafarge SA are in stark contrast with everything that Holcim stands for as a company.
“The described events concerning Lafarge SA were concealed from the Holcim Board at the time of the merger in 2015 and go completely against the values of our company.”
“On behalf of the Board of Directors of Holcim, I would like to reiterate how extremely shocked and appalled we are by the alleged charges against Lafarge SA.”
Since becoming aware of the legacy issue in 2016, Holcim engaged third-party experts to conduct a thorough independent investigation and shared its results with the judicial authorities. Since then, all the individuals put under investigation are no longer with the company.
