Noting that the victim, Phillip Mbuji Johansen, and his attackers knew one another, the prosecutor, Benthe Pedersen Lund, told a local newspaper that the killing had nothing to do with “skin color” but with “a personal relationship that has gone wrong.”

Denmark adopted a hate crimes statute in 2004, but activists, friends and family members, citing the grisly circumstances of the killing, say the authorities are often too reluctant to acknowledge racially inspired violence.

“It took three days for the police inspector and state prosecutor to completely refute that it is racially motivated, despite all the evidence pointing toward it,” said Awa Konaté, a Danish-Ivorian activist who teaches African cultural awareness. “This shows this is a systemic issue.”

Mr. Johansen (he sometimes identified as Mbuji Johansen), a 28-year-old engineering student of Danish and Tanzanian descent, came to the island of Bornholm to visit his mother last week. He went to a party on Monday and was later invited for a beer in the woods, his mother told the local Ekstra Bladet newspaper.

The next morning, Mr. Johansen’s mutilated body was found at a camp site. According to the preliminary indictment, his skull was broken after he was beaten several times with a wooden beam; he was stabbed multiple times; a knife was driven through his throat and a knee had been planted in his neck. He died sometime early Tuesday, according to a forensic report.