Two elderly women who applied five times for permission to demonstrate in China’s Olympic protest parks against the demolition of their homes have been ordered to serve a year of re-education through labour, according to a human rights group.

It is the toughest penalty to be reported against any of those who followed up an announcement by the Government that it would allow protests in three Beijing parks during the Games. So far, police say that they have received 77 applications. None has been approved.

Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, have been petitioning the Government since they were forcibly evicted from their homes in Beijing in 2001 as part of a series of huge renovation projects across the city.

They applied five times between August 15 and August 18 to the Beijing city Public Security Bureau for permission to demonstrate in the newly designated protest parks.

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Those who took advantage of the brief Beijing Spring of 1979 to call for democracy are serving indeterminate sentences in "re-education through labour centres"

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The former neighbours wanted to protest against their evictions seven years ago. Their application was neither granted nor denied but on August 5 they were held for ten hours for questioning by police, the son of one of the women told Human Rights in China.

On August 17 they each received a document from the city authorities ordering them to serve one year of re-education through labour — an administrative punishment that does not require any judicial process — from July 30 this year to July 29, 2009, for “disturbing public order”. The two would be allowed to serve their term outside a camp but the notice restricts their movements and states that if other regulations are violated they could be moved to a camp.

Li Xuehui, the son of Mrs Wu, told the Associated Press: “Wang Xiuying is almost blind and crippled. What sort of re-education through labour can she serve? But they can also be taken away at any time.” The women remained at home but were under observation by a neighbourhood watch group, he said.

Another Beijing resident, Zhang Wei, who had been trying for two years to gain compensation after the demolition of her home to make way for a development south of Tiananmen Square, was another who saw the protest parks as an opportunity to express her views.

After she applied for a protest permit she was ordered in early August to serve 30 days in custody for “disturbing public order”. She will not be free until after the Olympics.

Sharon Hom, of Human Rights in China, said: “Punishing Wu and Wang after they applied for protest permits and actively petitioned the Government demonstrates that the official statements touting the new Olympics ‘protest zones’ . . . were no more than a show.”