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A French appeal court on Wednesday upheld charges of complicity in crimes against humanity in against multinational industrial company .

The company, founded and headquartered in France, and itsÌýSyrian subsidiary,ÌýLafarge Cement Syria, areÌýaccused of having made deals with armed groups including to keep one of its cement factories open and operating between 2012 and 2014.

The company acknowledged that it paid almostÌý13 million euros to keep itsÌýJalabiya factory in northeast Syria open.

The company contends that it had no responsibility for the money winding up in the hands of terrorist groups, but theÌýappeals court sided with prosecutors who said Lafarge had "financed, via its subsidiaries, Islamic State operations with several millions of euros in full awareness of its activities."

°Õ³ó±ðÌý±·³Ò°¿²õÌý and Sherpa, as well as 11 of the company's former Syrian employees, filed a complaint against Lafarge in 2016.

Lafarge successfully appealed the charge of complicity in crimes against humanity in 2019.

But France's highest courtÌýordered a retrial in September 2021, and the decision Wednesday means that a judge could order Lafarge and eight of its executives, including former CEO Bruno Lafont, to stand trial.

Lafarge also faces charges ofÌýdeliberately endangering the lives of its Syrian employees.

"Today’s decision brings us one step closer to justice. For the sake of profits, Lafarge put me and my colleagues’ lives at risk," the ECCHR ÌýMohammad, a former employee of Lafarge Cement Syria and plaintiff in the case as saying.

"With this decision, it becomes more difficult for big corporations to hide behind their business activities to escape liability for the gravest crimes and shift the blame for faulty actions to their foreign subsidiaries," said Sandra Cossart, Executive Director at Sherpa.

The Islamic State group committed horrific human rights abuses as they swept through and controlled vast swathes of Syria and Iraq in the 2010s, including rape, torture, and mass murder.