Youths convicted in elite school hazing

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STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Five young men were convicted in a Swedish court Friday of hazing a student at an elite boarding school, officials said.

The youths were given suspended jail sentences but were ordered to perform between 75 and 160 hours of community service and must pay the victim a total of $4,460, The Local.se reported.

Judge Mikael Swahn found the defendants -- four 19-year-olds and a 20-year-old -- guilty of bullying a 17-year-old student at the Sigtuna Humanistiska Laroverk boarding school north of Stockholm. Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf is an alumnus of the school.

Prosecutors had wanted the five to be convicted of aggravated assault but the judge ruled "the violence was not so severe and the injuries were short-lived."

Prosecutor Yngve Rydberg said he was satisfied the sentence, although he had wanted the defendants sentenced to a year in jail.

Sweden's school inspection agency slammed all three of the country's boarding schools in 2011 for their attitudes toward hazing.