STOCKHOLM (AFP) - A former Swedish police chief was on Friday sentenced to six and a half years in jail for sex crimes including three rapes, in a case that garnered intense media scrutiny in Sweden.

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Göran Lindberg, 64, retired in 2006 but had served as the police chief of Sweden's fourth largest city Uppsala and as the head of the country's police school.

Before his arrest in January, Lindberg was known as a defender of gender equality and gruesome details of his alleged double life have made Swedish headlines.

On Friday, the Södertorn district court handed down a guilty verdict for "one count of aggravated rape, two counts of rape and abuse, three counts of pimping and 28 counts of purchasing sexual services" as well as facilitating the purchase of sex and attempting to facilitate the purchase of sex.

Lindberg was also sentenced to pay a total of 300,000 kronor (31,750 euros, 41,326 dollars) to his victims.

The prosecutor had sought eight years in jail.

One of the victims' lawyer, Elisabeth Massi Fritz, said the sentence was "disproportionate to the suffering and trauma inflicted upon the victims."

Lindberg had admitted to paying young women for sex but denied having committed sexual crimes.

He was deemed not guilty for the charges of attempting to rape a minor under the age of 15 and one count of rape because there was not enough evidence to support the charges.