“The boy regrets his actions and understands that what he did was wrong,” said the boy’s attorney Clea Sangborn to the Expressen newspaper.

“It’s not appropriate to oink at police. But going from doing something dumb and inappropriate to being convicted of a crime – that’s a big jump in my opinion.”

The incident took place in December in the Stockholm suburb of Solna when the 15-year-old boy passed the officers, who reported that the teen also called them “pigs”.

Feeling insulted by the boy’s behaviour, the officers filed a report about the matter, despite the fact that the 15-year-old apologized immediately when they confronted him following the incident.

Prosecutors then decided to open a formal investigation, and in February the boy was charged with insulting a police officer.

The decision to file charges against the boy raised eyebrows as it came shortly after prosecutors in Malmö decided not to launch an investigation into racist comments made by police officers in Skåne during disturbances in the city’s Rosengård district.

The prosecutors pointed out that the comments made by police in Skåne were not made in the presence of the young people towards whom they were directed.

On Tuesday, however, the 15-year-old boy was convicted by the Solna District Court and ordered to pay a fine of 200 kronor ($22) for insulting the officers.

Sangborn was concerned about how the ruling would be interpreted when a 15-year-old boy gets convicted whereas police in Skåne could apparently “express themselves however they want”.

“It sends strange signals,” Sangborn said of the ruling.