French justice minister's brother sentenced, again

PARIS, Aug 21 (Reuters) A brother of France's justice minister, already convicted of drug trafficking, was sentenced to a year in prison for drug offences today, just after his sister pushed through tougher sentences for repeat offenders.

An appeals court in the eastern French city of Nancy imposed the sentence on Jamal Dati, one of 11 siblings of Justice Minister Rachida Dati, for consuming and selling heroin in 2005.

A different court had already sentenced him to a six-month suspended jail term earlier this year but the prosecution appealed, arguing that the sentence was too light since Dati had been convicted of similar offences previously.

Dati's lawyer, Gerard Michel, had urged the appeals court to stick to the earlier ruling.

''Mr Dati has had a bit of a particular life,'' Michel told the court. ''(His father) decided his 12 children would succeed.

...Several became engineers, one is a judge,'' he said, without explicitly naming Rachida Dati, a trained judge.

Dati's other lawyer, Frederic Berna, said his client would appeal today's ruling. ''In relation to other cases of the same type, the sentence is extremely severe,'' Berna told Reuters.

Jamal Dati was given a three-year jail sentence for drug trafficking six years ago, after being fined for drug use in 1995.

The court's hearing on his case last month fell on the same day as his sister's defence of a new bill introducing tougher sentences for repeat offenders.

Rachida Dati told radio last month: ''All families go through difficult times, difficult events, difficult phases.'' She declined further comment as inappropriate.

The daughter of a Moroccan bricklayer and an illiterate Algerian housewife, Dati became a symbol of President Nicolas Sarkozy's ethnically diverse cabinet on her appointment in May, but she had a difficult start.

Her chief of staff quit after barely a month amid reports of a personality clash, denied by both sides. Three other top advisers have also quit, departures Dati dismissed as ordinary staff changes.

This month, the case of a convicted paedophile suspected of raping a five-year-old boy shortly after his release from prison stirred a fresh debate over repeat offenders.

Some magistrates say the case highlighted the inefficiencies and lack of funding in France's justice system. They say it is pointless to keep voting new laws without the funds to make sure new rules are applied.

Reuters CS V[0125