* Pursuant to Fed. R. App. P. 43(c), we have substituted Alberto Gonzales for John Ashcroft

as the named respondent.

United States Court of Appeals

For the Seventh Circuit

Chicago, Illinois 60604

Argued March 2, 2005

Decided April 18, 2005

Before

Hon. WILLIAM J. BAUER, Circuit Judge

 Hon. FRANK H. EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge

 Hon. DIANE S. SYKES, Circuit Judge

No. 03-4272

PANDELI PRIFTI,

Petitioner,

v.

ALBERTO GONZALES*, Attorney

General of the United States,

Respondent.

Petition for Review of an Order of the

Board of Immigration Appeals

No. A78-210-415

O R D E R

Albanian native Pandeli Prifti applied for asylum, withholding of removal,

and relief under the Convention Against Torture, alleging that he faced political

persecution because of his and his family’s long history of involvement with the

Democratic Party.1 An immigration judge found Prifti not credible and denied his

petition, and the Board of Immigration Appeals summarily affirmed. Prifti now

petitions for review of the BIA’s decision. We deny the petition.

In an affidavit that he attached to his application, Prifti explained that in

1999 he was forced to flee Albania after being threatened by Socialist Party

UNPUBLISHED ORDER

Not to be cited per Circuit Rule 53
No. 03-4272 Page 2

members to cease his “activities and support for the [D]emocratic party.” The most

serious of these threats came in late November 1998, after Prifti and his friend, a

fellow Democratic Party supporter, had been campaigning to “boycott[] the voting

for the new constitution.” A few days after they finished campaigning, Prifti’s

friend was “assassinated” outside his home by “masked men,” and Prifti’s father

received a phone call that Prifti would be killed as well. Prifti subsequently “went

into hiding” until he obtained a “bogus traveling document” that he used to enter

the United States via Italy. 

Prifti claims to be the third generation of his family persecuted by Albania’s

Socialist government. He says that his grandfather and great uncle supported the

armed anti-Socialist resistance until they were forced to flee Albania (Prifti

specifies no dates) and seek political asylum in Greece. Prifti stated that his “entire

family” spent ten years!from 1946 until 1956!in labor camps across Albania for

“political reasons.” Then, beginning in 1976, Prifti’s father spent eight years in jail

as a political prisoner. Years later, family members continued to be badly

mistreated; Prifti stated that in 1999 his sister was “attacked, beaten and raped for

our family’s involvement in the Democratic Party,” which he says led to her being

granted asylum in the United States in 2000. 

Prifti pinpointed his own trouble with the Socialist government as beginning

in 1991, when he was arrested, held and “tortured” for 24 hours as a result of

demonstrating against the government. When the Democratic Party came to power

in 1992, Prifti began “spreading the democratic word among the Albanians,” and he

stated that he became a “full member of the Democratic Party” in 1996. At the end

of 1996, however, Prifti claims that he “encountered problem[s]” with Socialist

supporters while campaigning for a local election on behalf of the Democratic

Party’s Youth Forum. Shortly thereafter, in 1997, his family’s coffee shop, known

as the “Democratic Café,” was looted and destroyed. It was following these events

that Prifti’s campaign friend was killed and Prifti went into hiding before leaving

the country in early 1999.

In 2001, Prifti filed an amended affidavit in which he expanded on the

information he gave in his application. He elaborated on his 1991 arrest, specifying

that he was beaten by police. He also introduced new details about the detention

that followed; he stated that while he was detained in his cell, a police officer “cut

me in my stomach” and “burned my shoulder.” Prifti added that he was taken to a

hospital to have his injuries treated. To corroborate this account, Prifti provided a

medical certificate prepared in 2000 by his family doctor in Albania, stating that

nine years earlier Prifti underwent an operation for “big strikes” on his stomach

caused by “strong tools.” Prifti claimed that his doctor issued this certificate based

on his review of earlier hospital reports (not in the record). Prifti also presented

medical reports from Elmhurst Clinic and Cook County Hospital prepared in 2000
No. 03-4272 Page 3

and 2001, respectively, stating that he had scars consistent with knife and burn

injuries.

 

In his amended affidavit, Prifti also for the first time described an incident

that occurred in 1997 in which he was beaten by police officers while trying to vote

in the “general election.” Following this beating, Prifti claims that he was taken by

police officers to the police station, where he watched them tear up his

identification and voting cards. 

Prifti subsequently had a hearing before an IJ, who denied relief. Citing

discrepancies between Prifti’s original affidavit, amended affidavit, and his

testimony, the IJ found Prifti not credible. Specifically, the IJ was troubled by

Prifti’s failure to mention in his original application that he was stabbed and

burned while in jail in 1991 and that he had been arrested for attempting to vote in

1997. The IJ also found incredible Prifti’s explanation for different dates he gave

regarding the year in which he officially joined the Democratic Party. The Board of

Immigration Appeals summarily affirmed. 

Because the BIA summarily affirmed the IJ’s decision, we evaluate the IJ’s

findings as if they were the BIA’s. Georgis v. Ashcroft, 328 F.3d 962, 966-67 (7th

Cir. 2003). We will uphold an IJ’s adverse credibility determination if it is

supported by “reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence on the record

considered as a whole.” Prela v. Ashcroft, 394 F.3d 515, 518 (7th Cir. 2005) (quoting

INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 481 (1992)). We will reverse only if we

determine that the evidence “compels a different result” and that no reasonable

factfinder could reach the same conclusion. Id. at 518; Krouchevski v. Ashcroft, 344

F.3d 670, 673 (7th Cir. 2003).

On appeal Prifti challenges the IJ’s finding that his testimony was not

credible. He argues that the IJ erred in discrediting his explanation of the stab and

burn wounds he received while in custody in 1991, and he supports his argument

by pointing to reports from physicians at Cook County Hospital and Elmhurst

Clinic confirming that his scars were consistent with knife and burn injuries. Prifti

also disputes the significance of purported discrepancies identified by the IJ in

dates when he joined the Democratic Party and in the degree to which his national

identification booklet was said to be “torn apart.” 

Substantial deference will be given to an IJ’s adverse credibility finding

provided that the IJ supported her credibility determination with “specific, cogent

reasons” that “bear a legitimate nexus to the finding.” Lin v. Ashcroft, 385 F.3d

748, 751 (7th Cir. 2004) (citations omitted). A credibility finding should be

overturned only where “extraordinary circumstances” warrant a reversal, and not

simply where substantial evidence could support an alternate finding. Capric v.

Ashcroft, 355 F.3d 1075, 1086-87 (7th Cir. 2004). Careful review is especially
No. 03-4272 Page 4

important because an adverse credibility determination in essence “doom[s]” an

alien’s asylum claim. Uwase v. Ashcroft, 349 F.3d 1039, 1041 (7th Cir. 2003).

The IJ here properly discredited Prifti’s explanation in his amended affidavit

that he received stab and burn wounds while in custody in 1991. The IJ noted that

the details of Prifti’s attack comprised a “crucial aspect[]” of his asylum claim that

he failed to mention in his original affidavit. An IJ is entitled to view new factual

assertions as “evidence that the applicant is not a truthful and reliable witness.”

Oforji v. Ashcroft, 354 F.3d 609, 614 (7th Cir. 2003). While minor inconsistencies

will not support an adverse credibility finding, inconsistencies that go to the heart

of an asylum claim will. Capric, 355 F.3d at 1090. Furthermore, although Prifti

insists that the submitted medical reports prepared by Chicago area doctors nine

and ten years after the date of his injuries corroborate his claim, the IJ was not

obliged to credit those reports, given the extended passage of time since the injuries

and the absence in the record of any other medical documentation more

contemporaneous with the injuries. See Diab v. Ashcroft, 397 F.3d 35, 40 (1st Cir.

2005) (finding that petitioner did not prove past persecution in part because,

although he submitted a report prepared by a doctor in the United States nine

years after his attack, he failed to submit any contemporaneous medical records

from his attack or alleged hospital stay). Similarly, to the extent Prifti might

suggest that the IJ should have credited the report of his Albanian doctor nine

years after the attack, we note that Prifti never introduced copies of the purportedly

contemporaneous records upon which that doctor based his opinion. And even if we

assume these reports corroborate Prifti’s claim that he suffered knife wounds and

burns, they do not establish that he was stabbed and burned in the manner in

which he claims. Given the significant inconsistencies in Prifti’s evidence, the

limited probativeness of his post-dated medical records, and the deference that we

accord an IJ’s credibility finding, we cannot say that the IJ was wrong to disbelieve

Prifti’s account of his attack in detention.

We acknowledge that the IJ’s discussion is less persuasive in regard to the

inconsistencies surrounding the date when Prifti joined the Democratic Party and

the degree to which his national identification booklet was torn. However, these

are only minor discrepancies and did not serve as the primary basis upon which the

IJ made his adverse credibility finding. We therefore DENY the petition.