(Minghui.org) The Dongzhou District Procuratorate in Fushun City returned the case against 12 Falun Gong practitioners to police for further investigation in January. This is the second time the procuratorate returned this case. However, the Dongzhou District Police Department recently submitted the case to the procuratorate for the third time.

Following the orders of the Fushun City Politics and Legal Affairs Committee and the 610 Office, Fushun police arrested 22 Falun Gong practitioners and their family members from July 22 to 24, 2016, and arrested 6 more practitioners from August 3 to 11. Seventeen of the arrested practitioners were from the Dongzhou District.

Fushun police arranged community personnel to follow and monitor the practitioners. The police waited in front of their homes and broke in as soon as the practitioners opened their doors. They also phoned the practitioners to deceive them into coming out of their homes. They then arrested the practitioners and ransacked their homes.

The 12 practitioners from the Dongzhou District were charged with being a “criminal gang”. The procuratorate did not agree that the charge, “criminal gang” applied to this case. So, they returned the case back to the Dongzhou District police department.

The police added more “evidence” and resubmitted the case to the procuratorate. Some of the practitioners' families hired attorneys to defend them.

The attorneys discussed the case with the procuratorate, who later rejected the case for the second time.

The 12 practitioners have been held at the Nangou Detention Center for over 200 days. They are: Lu Qing, Hu Fengqiu, Xu Guirong, Zhang Guiping, Liu Fengjuan, Li Mingyu, Qin Zengyun, Pan Fude, Dong Weirong, Jiang Shun'ai, Li Gang and Li Yanrong.