Blackmail trial begins in sex tape scandal

A blackmail trial involving six people, including one woman in a sex tape scandal with a former official, ended on Friday evening at China's Southwest city Chongqing.

The hearing was not open to the public.

Xiao Ye, Xu Sheqing, Yan Peng, Zhao Hongxia, Tan Linling, and Wang Jianjun, were charged with extortion last month.

Zhao became a household name in China since her sex tape with Lei Zhengfu, the former Party chief of Chongqing's Beibei district, was posted online in November.

Lei said during his trial earlier this month in Chongqing that Zhao was hired by Xiao Ye, a real estate company head, to lure him to have sex with her.

Lei added that he and Zhao were filmed without his knowledge in a hotel room in 2008.

The 55-year-old Lei was removed from his post three days after his tape appeared online, and detained by police on Feb 1.

Lei is accused of accepting 3.16 million yuan ($516,000) in bribes while he was in office from 2007 to 2012.

In order to blackmail government officials, a group of suspects, led by Xiao, targeted officials and lured them into having sex with women and secretly filmed the activities, from 2008 to 2009.

A total of 21 government officials and directors of State-owned companies in Chongqing were sacked for their involvement in the sex scandals.

The verdict is pending.