Later, in 1961, a third Christian neutral, Francisco Díaz Moreno, was assigned to Ocaña prison. The three young men managed to acquire a copy of the booklet “This Good News of the Kingdom,” and Jesús was able to prepare additional copies, using the typewriter in the office where he worked. At one time, they were conducting fifteen Bible studies with fellow inmates.

These Christian neutrals had such a yearning for new Bible literature that risks were taken to obtain it.

Unquestionably, there were various ways to maintain spiritual health. The four Christian neutrals now in Ocaña prison had some magazines and other literature. However, all their reading had to be done secretly and the literature had to be hidden. For that purpose, they had a chess set and used to hide the literature in the false bottom of the chessboard.

MEETINGS HELD WITH CAUTION

The four Christian neutrals at Ocaña prison were fully aware of the need to meet together for Bible study. (Heb. 10:24, 25) Finally, therefore, they arranged to have meetings every week, although they held them with extreme caution.

In Ocaña prison the beds were two-tier bunks arranged in parallel rows, with about eighty prisoners to each hall. The four Witnesses occupied two sets, side by side. So, while one of them was lying on top, listening and keeping an eye open for the guards, the other three sat below on the bottom beds, doing their best to present their parts on the program. With all the noise from the other prisoners, as well as the music or football match emanating from the loudspeaker above their heads, it was no easy task to discuss Scriptural matters. But these young men succeeded in doing so, even celebrating the Memorial of Jesus Christ’s death under such circumstances during 1962.

FREEDOM AT LAST​—FOR ONE

By the summer of 1964, Jesús Martín once again was alone in Ocaña, as the other three Christian neutrals had left in 1963. Francisco Díaz Moreno had finished one sentence and now had to present himself again, this time at El Aaiún, in the Spanish Sahara. Antonio Sánchez and Alberto Contijoch had similar experiences. However, before going their separate ways, they had decided on a new tactic. All four would request conditional liberty. In cases of good conduct, this allowed three months of freedom for each year served in prison.

The result of this effort was that three requests were rejected. But the petition of Jesús Martín was approved. He would be granted twenty-five months of provisional liberty and then would have to present himself again to the military authorities. So it was that in August 1964 Jesús stepped out of prison after having completed six years and six months of his sentence. For some reason he never was called up again.

After a year in Ocaña, Francisco Díaz Moreno had terminated his second sentence, and in January 1964 he was temporarily free for two months, awaiting his third court-martial. He used that time to build himself up spiritually, before going on to the Sahara. By April 1964, Francisco had been transported to a punishment camp called La Sagia, deeper in the desert.

While Francisco, Alberto and Juan were at La Sagia awaiting their transfer to El Aaiún, they decided that they would baptize Juan in one of the wells outside the camp. Then, all permission to leave the camp was refused. So how were they going to perform the baptism in this drought-ridden desert? Well, in the camp there was a big covered water deposit, with two apertures for filling it and taking water out by bucket. But it had only fifteen centimeters (6 inches) of water in it.

On the night of April 19, 1964, however, the three young men already were in their tents when they heard the water relief truck arrive. Yes, the water tank was being filled​—with enough water to drown a person. You guessed it! After a brief Scriptural discussion the three slipped silently across the sand to the water tank and Juan Rodríguez was baptized.

ENDURING IN EL AAIUN

Eventually, after varied experiences such as a period of incarceration at Hausa, an even more remote outpost in the desert, four Christian neutrals​—Alberto Contijoch, Francisco Díaz Moreno, Antonio Sánchez Medina and Juan Rodríguez—​found themselves imprisoned in El Aaiún. There conditions were quite restrictive, for the prison was a rectangular building with the cell doors facing outward toward the prison wall that was covered with barbed wire and glass fragments. At each corner of the wall there was a platform for the guards, who were on duty with automatic rifles. The cells were small, two by three meters (6.5 by 10 feet), and each one had two or three occupants. Exercise periods lasted only one hour each morning and each afternoon. But the heat was easier to bear than at other desert locations because this prison was situated only about twenty-five kilometers (15 miles) from the sea and that helped to ameliorate the climate.

At first, the four Christian neutrals were able to preach and conduct Bible studies, as well as hold meetings. Francisco, for instance, was able to speak with a young man who had been sentenced to death on the charge of instigating a murder, although his sentence had been commuted to thirty years. One day he sought a conversation with Francisco to tell him that his mother had sent him a Bible. Both his mother and aunt were Evangelical Protestants. Francisco tactfully used his Bible to give a witness regarding God’s name, and the interest flourished, so that a Bible study was started using the book “Let God Be True.” After just a few weeks, the young man was transferred to the Santa Catalina prison in Cádiz in southwest Spain, but the truth already was at work in his heart. He continued to progress and eventually was baptized. His mother and aunt now are baptized Witnesses also. So it was that while in captivity Marcelino Martínez had found true freedom.

The situation at El Aaiún got to the point that fifteen Bible studies were being conducted with other inmates. Finally, the prison authorities clamped down and separated the Witnesses from the rest of the prisoners. Even their exercise hour was changed so that it would not coincide with that of the others. No room was going to be left for their “proselytism.”

NEW TACTICS ADOPTED

After four or five years in prison, and with nothing happening in official circles, the imprisoned Christian neutrals began to study the Code of Military Justice in order to defend their position better. As part of their tactics, they wrote letters to all the government ministers to draw their predicament to the attention of those in official quarters. These neutral Witnesses virtually were condemned to life imprisonment, whereas a convicted murderer could be back on the streets after only seven years.

One of the legal problems was that in the courts-martial the Witnesses were not permitted to make adequate statements that could be included in the record of the trial. Francisco Díaz Moreno decided to try to change all of that. He had read in the Code of Military Justice that the prisoner’s final declarations should be included in the record. Thus, when his case came up before the El Aaiún court-martial, he waited until the prosecutor and the defense had nervously presented their respective cases. Then he was called upon to stand up and was asked if he had anything to state.

“Yes, Your Honor,” Francisco replied. He then started reading off his prepared declaration. Several times the presiding officer of the court tried to interrupt and break off the reading. However, when he saw the resolute attitude that Francisco manifested, he called him up to the bench. “What is it that you want, young man?” Francisco answered that he only wanted his declarations to be officially included in the court record. “Well, we’ll look into that and study the matter . . . ,” was the reply.

“Excuse me, Your Honor,” said Francisco. “It is not a matter of looking into it or studying it, but rather that my declarations should be included. Otherwise, the trial is not valid.”

When the presiding officer saw that there was no way around this argument, he relented, and Francisco’s written statement was attached to the court record. Thereafter, it was possible for Christian neutrals to make such declarations during each court-martial in El Aaiún.

RISCO MILITARY PRISON​—AND ITS COMMANDANT

One of the worst places of incarceration for Christian neutrals was the San Francisco del Risco military prison in the Canary Islands. The commandant there was an infamous officer nicknamed “Pisamondongos,” crudely translated as “Guts Treader.” He delighted in sadistic violence. Francisco Díaz Moreno spent some time there. When he arrived, he found that Fernando Marín and Juan Rodríguez already had spent a number of months there.

Soon Francisco was face-to-face with the commandant. “Are you one of Jehovah’s Witnesses?” asked the commandant. “Yes, sir,” was the reply. “Another traitor to the Fatherland!” thundered the commandant, also using unrepeatable expressions and ordering that Francisco be searched. Well, he happened to have one of our magazines in his pocket and had to give it up. As the sergeant continued his search, the commandant left and then returned. Impatient with the slowness of the search, the commandant himself hurriedly finished it. But he failed to find the magazines that Francisco had hidden under a body belt he was wearing. Thus copies of The Watchtower containing new information on the resurrection got inside that prison.

The three Witnesses were kept in a cell apart from other inmates and were not allowed to speak to the other prisoners. In the yard outside, a white line had been painted. Other prisoners were not allowed to cross it, so that they could not communicate with the brothers through the cell window. Some who had attempted to speak to Fernando Marín during his previous nine months there had been beaten severely. Ostensibly this separation was so that the Witnesses would not be contaminated by the rest! Fortunately, however, their stay at San Francisco del Risco was not to last much longer.

CADIZ PRISON CONGREGATION GROWS

From the Canary Islands, Francisco was sent to the Santa Catalina prison in Cádiz in October 1965. Down through the years this prison had become famous among Jehovah’s people, for it had reached the point of having as many as a hundred Witnesses there. Moreover, it has been visited by hundreds of brothers who have gone there to encourage their captive fellow believers. In May 1972 this prison was even visited by Grant Suiter, and later by Leo Greenlees, members of the Governing Body who were privileged to speak to this large congregation. In fact, the prison congregation was larger than the one outside in that same city.

Interestingly, with the passing of the years, the brothers incarcerated at Santa Catalina prison in Cádiz repeated the programs of all the circuit and district assemblies. On at least one occasion they even had representatives of the foreign press on hand for the wedding of one of the Witness inmates. The publicity given to that case drew worldwide attention to the lamentable situation of Spanish law with regard to conscientious objectors. Several weddings have taken place in that prison, but the first was that of Francisco Díaz Moreno to Margarita Mestre, in November 1967, in the presence of an officiating civil judge.