Persecution only made him speak out more. He asked for more freedom of religion and defended others who had spoken out and been put into jail. The secret police began to watch him and to make files of information against him. After Sakharov criticized activities of the USSR's Arab allies, Arab terrorists came to his apartment and held him, his wife, and his stepson hostage for an hour. "Do you want to kill us?" cried Sakharov's wife. "We can do worse things than kill you," they replied. After the terrorists left without doing anything, Sakharov tried to tell the police about it. The police did not really care.