Jamal Dati has had previous brushes with the law

An appeals court issued the sentence against Jamal Dati, after prosecutors challenged his initial six-month suspended term handed out in February.

Mr Dati's lawyer said his client had been singled out for his family ties, and says he will appeal.

In July Ms Dati steered through parliament a law on tougher sentences for repeat offenders.

Mr Dati had previous convictions. He was fined for drugs use in 1995 and received a prison sentence for drug trafficking in 2001.

He is a drug addict who had problems when he was a teenager and who suffered greatly from the death of his mother Frederic Berna, Jamal Dati's lawyer

Mr Dati's lawyer, Frederic Berna, suggested his client was meted harsher treatment just because he was the brother of the justice minister.

He added that Mr Dati was "a drug addict who had problems when he was a teenager and who suffered greatly from the death of his mother".

A second brother, Omar Dati, is under investigation for marijuana trafficking.

Family trouble

Ms Dati is the oldest of 12 siblings, born in 1965 from a Moroccan builder and an Algerian mother.

Ms Dati made her debut on the French political scene earlier this year, as a spokeswoman for the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy.

After Mr Sarkozy's victory in May, she was appointed justice minister, the highest office ever held by a French Muslim, and enjoyed high poll ratings.

The appeals court in the eastern city of Nancy heard Jamal Dati's case in July, on the day parliament began debating the bill providing for harsher sentences for repeat offenders.

She refused to comment on their cases, but said in an interview "In all families, there are difficult moments, difficult stories, difficult stages."