Former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli said Tuesday that the trial against him for allegedly collecting bribes from Brazil’s Odebrecht is “rigged” and affirmed before a crowd that he is willing to have his “balls cut off” if he is proven guilty.

This occurred in the middle of the preliminary hearing in the Odebrecht case in which he, along with 49 natural and legal persons, are charged with the crime of money laundering for allegedly receiving bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

The former president also described this preliminary hearing of Odebrecht as “political and invented.” He assures that the Vice President of the Republic, José Gabriel Carrizo, gave order to the judge of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) María Eugenia López for the judge of this case, Baloísa Marquínez, to decide to condemn him and he be disqualified from running as president of the Republic in the general elections of 2024.