France, Nov. 4 -- In what is shaping up to be a landmark case in France, the multinational cement giant Lafarge, along with several former senior executives are set to go on trial on Tuesday, accused of paying off jihadist groups - including the so-called Islamic State - to keep a Syrian cement plant running at the height of the country's civil war.

The case, which opens on Tuesday at the Paris criminal court, marks the first time a French company has faced trial on terrorism financing charges.

Alongside the company, which was absorbed in 2015 by the Swiss group Holcim, stand ex-CEO Bruno Lafont, five former managers from the operations and security teams, and two Syrian intermediaries - one of whom remains at large under an internation...