Chinese housing activist is jailed for fraud

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A veteran Chinese activist left disabled by past police mistreatment was sentenced Tuesday to two years and eight months in jail for fraud and provoking trouble.

Ni Yulan was sentenced by a Beijing court along with her husband, Dong Jiqin, who was jailed for two years.

The two were arrested last year and convicted of causing a disturbance at a hotel where they had been detained by police. Their arrest came as China carried out a sweeping crackdown to deter popular uprisings such as the ones that shook the Arab world.

Ni and her supporters deny the charges and say she is being punished for her years of activism, especially her advocacy for people forced from their homes to make way for the fast-paced real estate development that remade Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. Her outspokenness earned her the enmity of officials and developers.

The European Union issued a statement in front of the court Tuesday saying it was "deeply concerned" about Ni's sentence and that because of her poor health she should be released immediately.

Ni's sentence was relatively light compared to those handed down late last year to two longtime democracy and rights activists. Chen Wei and Chen Xi, were separately sentenced by courts in southern and central China to nine and 10 years in prison for posting essays on the Internet that the government deemed subversive.

Ni has been jailed twice before. In a June 2010 interview with The Associated Press, she described abuse she suffered at the hands of police, saying that guards had beaten her, insulted her and urinated on her face. While in detention in 2002, police pinned her down and kicked her knees until she was unable to walk, she said.

While serving her second prison term, Ni said she was deprived of her crutches and had to crawl up and down five stories and across the prison yard every day for months.