Etchecolatz criticized the procedures of the trial as biased and the judges as obedient to other powers. He said he was "an old man who is ill, with no money and no power", and "a part of a war that we with the arms and that we're losing politically." He refused to acknowledge the authority of the judges, telling them "You are not the judge. The supreme judge awaits us after death. [... It's not this tribunal that sentences me, it's you." The last thing he said before hearing the sentence was to claim he was "a prisoner of war" and "a political prisoner".