Paris, April 14 -- A French court on Monday fined the cement group Lafarge over $1.3 million and sentenced its former boss to six years in prison for paying protection money to the Islamic State group and other jihadists to maintain its business in war-torn Syria. The ruling follows a 2022 case in the United States in which the French firm pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to US-designated "terrorist" organisations and agreed to pay a $778 million fine, the first time a company had faced the charge. The Paris court found that Lafarge -- now part of the Swiss conglomerate Holcim -- paid nearly 5.6 million euros ($6.5 million) in 2013 and 2014 via its subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS) to jihadist groups and intermediaries to keep its plant operating in northern Syria. It ruled that Lafarge must pay the maximum fine....