A Stockholm court conditionally approved the extradition of 34-year-old Swede Anders Hoegstrom to Poland on Thursday, in connection with the theft of the notorious Auschwitz sign.

It was ruled that he could face trial in Poland on the provision that, if found guilty, he would be able to serve any prison sentence in Sweden.

Investigators suspect Hoegstrom of having incited the theft of a cultural treasure after the metal "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign was stolen from a gateway leading into the former Nazi death camp.

Hoegstroem was arrested in February over the theft. Polish police recovered the five-metre sign, which spells the German words meaning "Work Will Set You Free", two days after it was stolen in December. It had been cut into three parts in preparation for shipping.

Authorities arrested and charged five Polish men with the theft and the sign was returned to Auschwitz, now a museum to the horrors of the Holocaust, in January.

Appeal is possible

Hoegstrom's lawyer Bjorn Sandin said he would recommend that his client appeal the ruling within 10 days. Hoegstroem has told Swedish media he was acting as an intermediary for buyers.

In 1994, Hoegstroem founded the Swedish neo-Nazi National Socialist Front, which he led for five years before leaving.

Some some 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, died at Auschwitz during Nazi Germany's occupation of Poland during the Second World War.

rc/AP/AFP
Editor: Rob Turner