Auschwitz death camp sign theft: neo-Nazi Anders Hoegstroem jailed

I just heard, via the Museum Security Network, that the Swedish neo-Nazi suspect has been jailed for Auschwitz sign theft.

(I have blogged about the Swedish neo-Nazis funding terrorism through the illicit antiquities trade (and selling to a British neo-Nazi collector).

[However, the fantastic - and Wallander-watching - History Blog cited the Independent, which noted that 'prosecutors failed to turn up any evidence which supported Hogstrom's claims that he was acting as a middle man'; so, bizarrely, he may have claimed that he was enabling fascist terrorism in order to hide how he his profiting from antiquities smuggling.])

Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist Michal Mrozinski reported that (Swedish) National Socialist Front founder (and former leader) Anders Högström struck a plea bargain to avoid a ten-year prison sentence for masterminding the theft of the grotesquely mocking sign at the entrance to Auschwitz death camp, which declared that "work liberates [Arbeit macht frei]".

Högström's sentence was reduced to two years and eight months; his partners-in-crime (and in plea-bargaining), Marcin Auguscinski got two years and six months, and Andrzej Strychalski got two years and four months. (According to the BBC, Andrzej Strychalski apologised in court.)

[The History Blog's information was added on the 1st January 2011.]