Police officer trapped in lift with detained man at Marbella courts building

The precariousness of the judicial system and the deplorable state of some court buildings in Malaga province is reaching breaking point. In Marbella, where the courts are still housed in an outdated five-storey building with clearly antiquated installations, only one of the two lifts is working. And the only one that is still operational keeps breaking down.

The latest episode in this situation, which is beginning to become problematic, happened when a National Police officer became trapped inside the lift with a detainee. After ten minutes, and with the current high temperatures, the officer had to break one of the windows of the lift to let air in.

In the end, the policeman and the detainee in his custody were able to make their own way out of the luft, although the fire brigade had to be notified: it has now asked for a new report on the state of the building. This is not the first problem of this kind. A few months ago, the emergency services had to rescue two Local Police officers who were trapped in the lift with another detainee.

The union of justice administration workers (STAJ) highlighted that the lift in question serves a five-storey building that houses five courts and the prosecutor's office, in addition to the public that accesses the courts, the police and the detainees they guard, a situation they describe as unsustainable.

To make matters worse, the second lift in the building stopped working some time ago and the only one that is operational keeps breaking down. The STAJ has already reported 16 breakdowns since August last year until today. "They keep us like animals," complained a worker at the Marbella courts.

The union complained that the tender to renovate the lifts was made with 2021 prices, so no company has opted to undertake the work, which they found to be non-profitability, so the tender was shelved.