An activist charged in the fire that nearly destroyed a historic French city hall comes from an off-the-grid family previously investigated over attacks on electricity infrastructure, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Last month, armed French authorities arrested 34-year-old Hodei Ciarra Docampo during a dawn raid in Bussière-Boffy, an isolated community in central France. According to French authorities, Ciarra Docampo, his family, and the surrounding community are part of the “ultra-Left” faction they blame for helping fuel riots across France, where more than 1,000 officers and protesters have been injured.
Ciarra Docampo is charged with attempting to murder a public official over his alleged role in the fire that devastated Limoges’ neo-Renaissance city hall. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
Officials said video shows him throwing a trash can into the burning building. His lawyers dispute that the evidence shows he helped set the fire.
“I think the charges are very thin,” his lawyer Henri Braun told the Journal. An appeals court ordered him held in pretrial detention on Tuesday.
Limoges City Hall was built in 1883 and survived both world wars. The fire became one of the most visible episodes of destruction during protests that began with high school students demanding better schools. Reporting from Fox indicated that most of the rioters are far-left actors. European authorities suspect Chinese and Russian interference is amplifying the leftist protests across Europe.
Docampo’s father, Spanish-born Fernando Ramirez, is described in French court documents as an anarchist with ties to the Basque separatist movement. Local officials also alleged he belonged to the militant group ETA, an accusation he denied.
Ramirez was convicted earlier this year of setting fire to trucks belonging to Enedis, the company that deploys France’s Linky smart electric meter system, and of the antenna arson that followed. Ciarra Docampo and his mother were also investigated over the attack, according to court documents reviewed by the Journal.
Eleven months after that attack, television antennas in the same region were burned, disrupting communications for about a million people. Ramirez’s DNA was found at both arson sites. Graffiti near the antennas read, “Not 5G, nor TGV but the voice of the wind and the song of the birds.”
Ramirez denied responsibility but defended attacks on Enedis during police questioning.
“I believe that the people who are attacking Enedis, it’s nothing, it’s a cry for help, it’s a message for the population. For people to hear the message, it has to come to this,” Ramirez said during his interrogation.
Ramiriz and his wife have allowed people without fixed addresses to park their vans on the family’s land. Local officials have also clashed with community members over tents they said violated French regulations.
French authorities have monitored the family and the isolated community for years. Their activism includes opposition to development projects and smart meters, which they view as instruments of government control and sources of harmful electromagnetic waves, according to the Journal.
One longtime neighbor, Paul Lacoste, defended the family’s hospitality.
“This isn’t a criminal family,” he told the Journal. “They have always supported travelers or young people who arrive suddenly and need a place to stay.”
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