In 1963 the group of Christian neutrals at Ocaña prison grew from three to four, with the arrival of Antonio Sánchez Medina. He already had undergone prison hardships elsewhere, and before he could associate with the other three Witnesses, he had to complete a thirty-day probation. In spite of being held incommunicado, however, Antonio figured out a way of witnessing without talking. When another prisoner showed interest in the truth, Antonio drew up a Bible crossword puzzle for that inmate to fill out. By means of various crossword puzzles, Antonio got the prisoner to search his Bible.

When Antonio’s initial thirty-day period was about to end, he received a setback. While previously imprisoned at Zaragoza he had written a letter to the brothers, telling them about an interested prisoner. Antonio had hidden this letter in his mattress, awaiting an opportunity to get it out of the prison. But the letter had been discovered in a search of his cell. Now he was to pay the consequences at Ocaña​—twenty days in the punishment cells for having written the letter and for proselytism.

Antonio was taken down to the “tube”​—a tunnel with cold, dark cells. There was no furniture in his cell, just a washbasin, a toilet, an aluminum plate and a spoon. At night he was brought a mattress and two dirty blankets. But he had no reading or writing material. So, how was he going to endure those twenty days of boredom? The crossword puzzle idea was the answer. However, Antonio did not have paper and pencil. So, he broke off one of the handles of his plate and used it to write on the tiles of his cell floor. He turned the floor into a gigantic Bible crossword puzzle! Why, Antonio was so engrossed in recalling Bible personages and passages that those days passed quickly!

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.

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.