Jail for man who stole Auschwitz sign

A SWEDISH man has been jailed two years and eight months for instigating the theft last year of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Sets You Free") sign from the former Auschwitz death camp.

A judge at a court in the Polish city of Krakow approved a settlement that Anders Hogstrom, 35, had reached with prosecutors, a court spokesman said.

Hogstrom had confessed to involvement in the December 2009 theft and was convicted of instigating it.

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Experts on Sweden's far right say Hogstrom founded and led the Swedish neo-Nazi group National Socialist Front in the 1990s.

However, he left the organisation in 1999 after two of its members were convicted of a police murder, and became an active opponent of the extreme right, according to Expo, a research foundation.

Prosecutor Robert Parys yesterday said the main motive of the group of six that carried out the theft was financial.