Thieves on the run

From: NPE
The three men jailed for stealing the Auschwitz sign are missing after being let out of jail on compassionate leave.

Two of the men, brothers Lukasz and Rodoslaw M., had been entrusted with weekend passes in order to visit their ill mother. The third man, Pawel S., had also been allowed out, to organise wedding plans with his fiancée.

But police have confirmed that all three have failed to return to the jail in Wroclawek and arrest warrants have now been issued by Krakow’s District Court.

The men had been sentenced for their roles in the theft of the famous ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ sign that sits above the entrance gate to the Nazi death camp in December last year.

Police are now worried that their no-show could affect the outcome of the case against Anders Hogstrom, the man who is believed to have plotted and staged the entire theft.

Hogstrom, who founded Sweden’s anti-immigrant National Socialist Front in 1994, was extradited to Poland this month to face trial - with most of the evidence based on statements from the men who are now missing.

The former neo-Nazi leader has pleaded innocent, stating that he was merely asked to collect the sign from the Polish gang in order to pass it onto a buyer. If convicted of the crime, he faces up to 10 years in prison.