Opinion ID: 78460
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Kazemzadeh's Appeal to the Board

Text: The Board dismissed Kazemzadeh's appeal on the ground that he failed to establish eligibility for asylum or withholding of removal. The Board ruled that Kazemzadeh failed to establish that he was persecuted on account of his political opinion because he failed to allege that he suffered any specific harm as a result of his arrest, interrogation, beating, and detention. The Board also ruled that Kazemzadeh failed to establish that he has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of his political opinion because he returned to Iran from Germany without incident before later traveling to the United States and he did not authenticate documents to establish that he was convicted in absentia and sentenced to six years in prison after he left Iran. The Board agreed with the finding of the Immigration Judge that Kazemzadeh failed to establish that he has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of his religion because he did not prove that anyone in Iran is aware of his conversion to Christianity. The Board stated, To the extent that [Kazemzadeh] argues on appeal that there is a pattern or practice of persecution in Iran against people who convert to Christianity, we find that [Kazemzadeh] failed to establish that such a pattern or practice exists .... The Board did not discuss Kazemzadeh's testimony that Iranians who convert from Islam to Christianity practice underground, and the Board also did not discuss Kazemzadeh's personal encounters with the Iranian regime in reference to the potential discovery of his religious conversion.