UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

ZEWDITU BEYIN,

Petitioner,

v.

No. 98-1347

U.S. IMMIGRATION &

NATURALIZATION SERVICE,

Respondent.

On Petition for Review of an Order

of the Board of Immigration Appeals.

(A73-094-461)

Submitted: July 14, 1998

Decided: August 6, 1998

Before WIDENER and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges, and

BUTZNER, Senior Circuit Judge.

_________________________________________________________________

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

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COUNSEL

John William O'Leary, JOHN O'LEARY & ASSOCIATES, Washington, D.C., for Petitioner. Frank W. Hunger, Assistant Attorney

General, Richard M. Evans, Assistant Director, Carl H. McIntyre, Jr.,

Office of Immigration Litigation, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent.

_________________________________________________________________
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See

Local Rule 36(c).

_________________________________________________________________

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Zewditu Beyin petitions for review of an order of the Board of

Immigration Appeals (the "Board") denying her application for asylum and withholding of deportation but granting voluntary departure.

Because substantial evidence supports the Board's decision, we

affirm.

Beyin is a thirty-four year old female native and citizen of Ethiopia. She entered the United States in 1993 as a non-immigrant visitor

and filed an application for asylum in 1994. Her claim was based

upon her political and familial affiliations and Amhara and Oromo

ethnicity. Her application was denied, and an order to show cause was

issued. At the deportation hearing, at which Beyin conceded deportability, the Immigration Judge ("IJ") denied Beyin's petition for asylum and withholding of deportation but granted her application for

voluntary departure. The Board reviewed Beyin's claims and dismissed her appeal.

Beyin has six children, the youngest born in the United States in

1993 and now living in Canada. Mekonnen Habte Marima, her husband, was a captain and pilot in the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force with

the Mengistu government. Beyin and Marima were active in party

politics. That government was deposed in 1991. Marima was jailed

for three months when the government fell. After his release, he

became active in a political group opposing the new transitional government.

In June 1992, Marima was arrested for the murder of seven

Tigrayan men. As of this date, Marima has been confined, and there

is no record of a trial on the murder charges. Beyin was not able to

visit Marima while he was incarcerated because she feared for her

safety at the hands of prison guards.

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Beyin faced constant abuse and threats from her Tigrayan neighbors as a result of her husband's arrest. She quit her job of eight years

and left the area to live with her mother. Tigrayan activists discovered

her new location and continued their pattern of threats. Out of fear for

her life, she came to the United States. Five of her children are in

Ethiopia living with neighbors.

To establish a prima facie case for asylum, a person must show that

she has a well-founded fear of persecution, or a showing of past persecution, as a result of her "race, religion, nationality, membership in

a particular social group, or political opinion." 8 U.S.C.A.

§ 1101(a)(42)(A) (West Supp. 1998); see also Huaman-Cornelio v.

Board of Immigration Appeals, 979 F.2d 995, 999 (4th Cir. 1992). To

demonstrate a "well-founded fear of persecution," an individual must

show that a reasonable person under these circumstances would fear

persecution and that the fear has some basis "in the reality of the circumstances" validated with "specific concrete facts." Id. (internal

quotation marks omitted).

The IJ concluded that Beyin failed to establish that any harm she

fears or has suffered was related to her race, religion, nationality,

membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. The IJ

found that the harm Beyin suffered and the fear that she may face further persecution if she returned was due to her husband's arrest for

the murder of seven individuals. Beyin's husband's membership in an

opposition party and her own past activities during the Mengistu

regime were insufficient to establish a well-founded fear of persecution. The Board agreed with the IJ.

We must uphold the Board's decision if it is supported by substantial evidence from the record as a whole. See Huaman-Cornelio, 979

F.2d at 999. We reverse the Board only if the evidence presented by

the petitioner "was so compelling that no reasonable factfinder could

fail to find the requisite fear of persecution." Immigration & Naturalization Serv. v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 483-84 (1992).

Beyin's primary contention is that her husband's arrest was motivated by his opposition to the current government. She contends that

since there is no record of a conviction or a trial, it is likely that the

charges were created to give the appearance of a legitimate reason to

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detain Marima for an indeterminate length of time. Thus, according

to Beyin, the abuse and threats she subsequently faced were due to

Marima's political beliefs and her own activities.

We find no reason to reverse the Board's decision. The evidence

shows that Beyin faced a pattern of abuse or threats only after her

husband's arrest for the murder of seven persons. Thus, Marima's

arrest, regardless of its legitimacy, appears to have prompted the

harassment. Therefore, there is substantial evidence to find that the

harassment she faced was motivated by something other than political

activity or beliefs.

We therefore affirm the Board's decision. We dispense with oral

argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid

the decisional process.

AFFIRMED

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