( CNN ) -- Three people have been charged in last year 's theft of the famous `` Arbeit Macht Frei '' sign at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland , a prosecutor said Friday . The prosecutor , Robert Parys , said he could not immediately confirm details about those charged , but Poland 's official PAP news agency reported the main suspect is a Swedish man , Anders Hoegstroem . Prosecutors say Hoegstroem incited two Poles to steal the sign , which sat atop the entrance to the camp , PAP reported . He pleaded not guilty , and would face a sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted , the news agency reported . Hoegstroem was arrested in February in Stockholm , Sweden , and the Swedish court allowed him to be transferred to Poland in April , PAP said . The sign reading `` Arbeit Macht Frei '' -- German for `` Work Sets You Free '' -- was emblematic of the Nazi camps of World War II . It was stolen in December of last year , prompting outrage around the world . The sign was found 70 hours later in a village near Torun , roughly 210 miles ( 340 kilometers ) to the north , and had been chopped into three parts , PAP reported . The men managed to remove the heavy iron sign by unscrewing it from one side and pulling off on the other , police spokeswoman Agnieszka Szczygiel said at the time . More than 1 million people died in gas chambers or were starved to death in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex ; about 90 percent of the victims were Jews .
The ` ` ' ##er Frei '' sign was emblematic of Nazi Germany . The Nazis are suspected of stealing the sign last December . The sign was later found , broken into three pieces .