What happened
French authorities have charged 34-year-old Hodei Ciarra Docampo with attempted murder of a public official in connection with a fire that severely damaged Limoges’ historic neo-Renaissance city hall. The building, constructed in 1883, survived both world wars before the blaze.
Officials said video footage shows Ciarra Docampo throwing a trash can into the burning structure. His lawyer, Henri Braun, disputed that the evidence proves he helped set the fire, describing the charges as “very thin.” An appeals court ordered him held in pretrial detention.
Ciarra Docampo was arrested last month during a dawn raid in Bussière-Boffy, an isolated off-grid community in central France. French authorities associate him, his family, and the surrounding community with an ultra-Left faction linked to nationwide unrest in which more than 1,000 officers and protesters have been injured.
His father, Spanish-born Fernando Ramirez, was convicted earlier this year of arson attacks on trucks belonging to Enedis, the operator of France’s Linky smart meter system, and on television antennas that disrupted communications for roughly a million people. Ramirez’s DNA was found at both sites, though he denied responsibility while defending the attacks as a message to the population.
