(Minghui.org) Four Gaoyang County locals remain detained following their arrest on August 3 of this year for distributing information about Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.

Ms. Liu Xiangju, her sister Ms. Liu Xiangling, and Ms. Li Jinying were sent to Baoding City Detention Center. Mr. Feng Zhiyong, an accountant in a local textile factory, was sent to Gaoyang Detention Center.

Bian Likun, head of the local domestic security office, led her officers and ransacked all four practitioners’ homes shortly after the arrest. They didn’t produce a search warrant, but deceived the practitioners’ families into signing search warrants and lists of confiscated items a few days later.

Ms. Liu Xiangling’s lawyer met with her on August 15 before visiting Bian in the afternoon. The lawyer emphasized that no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong and that his client should never have been arrested in the first place. He urged Bian to not prosecute innocent citizens.

The lawyer mailed his statement of opinion to Gaoyang County Police Department on August 19, again requesting his client’s release.

Ms. Liu Xiangju’s lawyer met with her on August 19. Like the other lawyer, he also visited Bian and expressed the same opinion. He next submitted a request for his client’s release on bail, but it was never approved.

One month has passed, and the four practitioners are still in detention. By law, they should have been released already, given that they have not been formally arrested.

Their families are calling for their immediate release.