LUND, Sweden, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Swedish authorities will not press charges against a student group for a mock slave auction at a party, but critics of the decision says it condones racism.
"They're basically saying that it is OK to demean Afro-Swedes as long as it is done as a costume party. That means that it is open season for anyone who wish to do so," Jallow Momodou, chairman of the National Afro-Swedish Association told Sweden's The Local.
Students at Lund University held a slave auction in which three people blackened their faces and had ropes around their necks. The incident was reported to police by the Afro-Swedish Association and Momodou said there should be legal consequences for the students' actions, The Local reported Thursday.
The European Network Against Racism in Brussels wrote a letter to Sweden's Minister for Democracy and European Affairs Birgitta Ohlsson asking the government to take disciplinary action against the students.
U.S. civil rights activist Jesse Jackson asked the Swedish government to make its citizens aware of the country's involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
District Prosecutor and hate crimes specialist Mattias Larsson says he doesn't intend to file charges against the students because the event was a costume party.
