The wife of a detained Chinese human rights lawyer says she has been prevented from leaving her neighborhood in the latest apparent case of extra-legal harassment of those who fall afoul of the ruling Communist Party.

Xu Yan tweeted Thursday that she had been followed from her apartment by police officers who stopped her leaving by taxi by telling the drivers not to take her.

Xu's husband, Yu Wensheng, was grabbed by police on Jan. 19 while preparing to take his 13-year-old son to school and has been charged with the loosely defined crime of inciting subversion.

During a visit to Beijing last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Xu and Li Wenzhu, the wife of another detained lawyer, Wang Quanzhang.