Sweden sentenced to prison for Auschwitz sign burglary

A Swedish man was sentenced yesterday to two years and eight months in prison for instigating the theft a year ago of the dishonorable "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign from the former Auschwitz death camp.

A judge at a regional court in the southern Polish city of Krakow accepted a settlement that Anders Hogstrom, 35, had reached with prosecutors, court spokesperson Rafal Lisak said. Hogstrom had confessed to involvement in the December 2009 theft and was convicted of instigating it. He is expected to be transferred to Sweden in the coming weeks to serve his term, Lisak said. Both sides have seven days to request the verdict, but none is expected.

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 organization in 1999 after two of its members were convicted of a high-profile police murder, and became an active adversary of the extreme right, according to Expo, a research foundation.