THE trial of 12 people accused of secretly filming sex videos to blackmail officials has ended and they are now awaiting the verdict of a court in Hengyang, a city in Central China’s Hunan Province, Shanghai Daily reported.

    The suspects, six men and six women, are accused of extorting nearly 2.6 million yuan (US$408,200) from 55 people, mostly officials, in Hunan, Hubei, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces between 2009 and 2013.

    The Beijing News said the women were accused of having sex with officials and recording the encounters while the men are alleged to have sent the videos to officials with demands for money.

    At the conclusion of the trial, prosecutors called for sentences of more than 10 years for three people they claim organized the alleged scheme — Tang Guoqing, Qi Jianguo and Li Yi — and Jiang Chunyan, a woman they claimed hired women to have sex with officials.

    The court heard that Tang and Li had received suspended sentences in 2011 for trying to blackmail Yin Wen, then director of the labor authority in Changning, a city administered by Hengyang. He had refused to pay a demand for 600,000 yuan and instead called the police.

    The scandal is said to have involved officials from more than a dozen cities.

    Among them was Liu Honghan, then a Party chief in a development and reform bureau in Hunan, the Beijing News said.

    (SD-Agencies)