Zagreb - A Croatian court on Monday sentenced retired general Vladimir Zagorec to seven years in prison for the theft of 5 million dollars' worth of diamonds from a government safe and ordered him to return the money.

In 2000, Zagorec, then an active officer and assistant defence minister, embezzled the diamonds deposited in the defence ministry treasury.

The gems were deposited in the ministry's treasury seven years earlier after a murky weapons deal, at a time when Croatia was fighting a Belgrade-backed Serb insurgency on a third of its soil.

The 46-year-old Zagorec, a much-decorated officer despite having never seen battle, served in the government from 1993 to 2000 and simultaneously heading RH Alan, the company which imported weapons to Croatia - at times circumventing a United Nations arms embargo.

Ranked as the 44th richest Croatian in 2006, with 26 million euros (33 million dollars) in personal accounts, he was arrested in Austria in 2007 and extradited to Croatia in October.

Media reports said the stolen diamonds were originally donated to Croatia's Catholic Church by the pro-Hitler government in Zagreb during the Second World War, only to be returned in the government's hour of need six decades later. That claim was not discussed during the trial. (dpa)