A verdict was reached Friday in a high-profile sex tape trial in Southwest China's Chong­qing Municipality and a former official was given a 13-year sentence, the court said on its website.

The Chongqing No.1 Intermediate People's Court sentenced Lei Zhengfu, former secretary of Chongqing's Beibei District Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), to 13 years in jail for bribery and confiscated 300,000 yuan ($48,554) of his personal property.

According to a statement from the court, Lei took advantage of his position and provided help to local businesspeople and individuals in exchange for more than 3.16 million yuan in bribes from March 2007 to November 2012.

The court said that in February 2008, Lei asked a businessman surnamed Ming to lend 3 million yuan to another businessman named Xiao Ye, who had conspired with others to lure Lei into having sex with a woman they hired and secretly recorded the trysts in order to blackmail Lei. Xiao refused to return the money to Ming and asked Lei to repay it for him, but Ming then decided not to claim repayment.

Although Lei claimed his actions were merely favors for friends, the court concluded that Lei had accepted Ming's money intentionally as bribery to pay for Xiao's extortion.

The court said Lei also received $10,000 and a watch from a businessman surnamed Yin as incentive to secure support funds for Yin's company in July 2011, and Lei's wife got a further 100,000 yuan from a doctor surnamed Fan whom Lei helped to obtain a promotion at a hospital in Chongqing in 2012.

Lei didn't say whether he would ask for an appeal, and his defense lawyer Lu Lei told chinanews.com that the two will meet Wednesday before making a decision.

"Lei believes he just fell for the wrong woman. It did have a bad impact on the government and society, but it did not constitute a crime," Lu said.

Also on Friday, the Yubei District People's Court in Chongqing sentenced Xiao Ye and his five companions in the extortion group to jail terms ranging from 18 months to 10 years for organizing blackmail activities. Zhao Hongxia, the woman who was hired by Xiao to seduce Lei and record the sex tape, was sentenced to two years with two years' reprieve.

Zhang Zhiyong, Zhao's lawyer, told the Global Times on Friday that he and Zhao's family are satisfied with the result.

"It is the best outcome we can expect. After all, Zhao did something wrong, even though she is also the victim," Zhang said.

According to Zhang, Zhao went home with her family after the trial concluded.

Zhao was detained by police in December 2012 after a sex video of her and Lei taken in 2008 was posted online in November. Lei was subsequently removed from his post and detained by police in February. In early May, Lei was expelled from the CPC.

According to the Southern Metropolis Daily, Chongqing authorities claimed earlier that the extortion group had made sex tapes involving 21 high-level local officials and executives of State-owned enterprises.

Eleven of them were removed from their positions after the scandals came to light. But only two, including Lei, were mentioned in the trials.