What more can you do to a housing rights activist when you’ve already beaten her, threatened her, cut off her water and electricity, forced her out of her house and imprisoned her? Chinese authorities found the answer: You can actually destroy her house while she’s in prison!

Ni Yulan has been in police custody for nearly seven months and last week, a Beijing court gave the go ahead to developers to level her house to make way for new constructions. 47-year-old Ni Yulan is a problem for authorities in Beijing. She is one the very high profile cases of the so-called “land grab” cases. For the past ten years, she has been active in the fight against government-led expropriations and evictions of people living in hutongs - traditional neighbourhoods in Beijing.

In 2002, she spent a year in prison, accused of “damaging public property” and was beaten so badly she now walks with crutches. Last April, she was detained after trying to stop officials from demolishing her hutong. According to her husband and to a Chinese activists group, she was severely beaten at the police station.

She now stands accused of “obstructing a public official”, an offence which carries a sentence of three years. Her trial was scheduled for 4 August this year, just before the Olympic but was, not surprisingly, postponed.

In China, land in the cities technically belongs the state so authorities control how it is to be used. Activists say residents are often evicted following shady deals between officials and developers.

Land grab cases are a highly sensitive social issue in China and have in recent months led to violent protests.