A Chinese court on Tuesday sustained its verdict in the case of a former Chongqing official who was embroiled in a sex video scandal and later handed a 13-year imprisonment for bribery.

The Chongqing Municipal Higher People's Court in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality announced its verdict in the case of Lei Zhengfu, 55, at 11 am.

Lei's first trial began on June 28 in Chongqing. The municipality's No.1 Intermediate People's Court said Lei, former secretary of Chongqing's Beibei District Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), used his position to obtain benefits for others and accepted bribes totaling more than 3.16 million yuan (512,987 US dollars).

In addition to the jail sentence, Lei was also fined 300,000 yuan for the crimes and deprived of his political rights for three years, according to the court's ruling.

Lei submitted an appeal on July 13. During the second court hearing on Sept. 6, Lei retracted a confession, saying the first judgement was based on unclear facts, lacked evidence and its ruling was incorrect.

The former official appeared in a sex video that was posted online in November 2012. He was subsequently removed from his post and detained by police on Feb. 1. In May, Lei was expelled from the CPC.

Chongqing No.1 Intermediate People's Court also sustained a first trial verdict on Tuesday for six people who blackmailed Lei with sex videos that had been recorded secretly.

They received jail terms ranging from 18 months to ten years at the first trial on June 28 at the Yubei district people's court.

Xiao Ye and Xu Sheqing, who had conspired to lure officials into having sex with women and then secretly recorded the encounters in order to blackmail them, were sentenced to ten years and four years, respectively, according to a Yubei district people's court ruling.

Yan Peng and Wang Jianjun, accomplices of Xiao, were sentenced to 3.5 years and 1.5 years with a 1.5-year-reprieve, respectively, according to the ruling.

In February 2008, Xiao blackmailed Lei Zhengfu, former secretary of Chongqing's Beibei District Committee of the Communist Party of China, for 3 million yuan (487,012 US dollars).

Xiao also received 2 million yuan from Zhou Tianyun, former president of Chongqing Land Group, for similar reasons in September 2009, according to the ruling.

Zhao Hongxia, who was recorded having sex with Lei, was given a jail term of two years with a two-year reprieve.

Tan Linling, who was recorded having sex with Zhou, was given a jail term of one-and-a-half years with an 18-month reprieve.

Xiao, Xu and Yan submitted an appeal after the first trial. Zhao, Tan and Wang, who did not appeal, witnessed Tuesday's trial as accomplices.