CAIRO, Feb 14 (Aswat Masriya) - An Egyptian court has sentenced on Tuesday a journalist and the legal adviser for the dissolved Freedom and Justice Party to six months in jail. 

The defendants were convicted of insulting and defaming former minister of justice Ahmed al-Zend in an article published at state-owned al-Gomhoreya newspaper. 

Zend, who was the head of Egypt's Judges Club between 2009 and 2015, filed a complaint in 2015 over an interview with legal counsellor of Freedom and Justice Party Ahmed Abo-Barka in 2012.

Former al-Gomhoreya editor-in-chief Gamal abdel- Rahim was also fined EGP 20,000 for his responsibility over publishing the article.

In July 2015, Ahram Gate journalist Ahmed Amer was sentenced to a year in jail on charges of spreading false news regarding al-Zend. 

The court also ordered an EGP 10,000 fine for the editor-in-chief of the state-owned news portal Hesham Younes.

Zend was appointed as a minister of justice in May 2015. He was fired after less than a year in office over remarks about Islam's Prophet Muhammad that were considered to be blasphemous.