Warsaw: Polish prosecutors filed charges
on Thursday against a Swede with neo-Nazi ties and two Poles acting
for profit and said all three had confessed to the brazen
theft of the notorious "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign from the gates
of the Nazi`s Auschwitz death camp last year.
They also announced that a second Swede, whose name was
not released, is suspected of masterminding the robbery and
that investigators in Sweden will now work to shed light on
his role, of which the public has so far known nothing.
"In our investigation we have uncovered evidence
indicating the possibility that a Swedish citizen on Sweden`s
territory might have instigated another Swedish citizen to
commit a crime connected with the theft of the `Arbeit Macht
Frei` sign," prosecutor Robert Parys said.
Prosecutors filed the charges today with a court in
Krakow. They said the three had pleaded guilty and agreed to
prison terms of about 2 1/2 years each.
Now it is up to the court to decide whether to accept
their plea bargains and sentence them immediately without
trial, a step considered very likely. The court said it still
hadn`t reviewed the documents and could not comment day.
Prosecutor Janusz Hnatko said the Swede, Anders Hogstrom,
would serve out his term in a Swedish prison if the court
convicted him.
PTI
