Opinion ID: 1394657
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Decision of the IJ

Text: The IJ denied Mr. Tarraf's requests for asylum, withholding of removal and CAT relief. First, with respect to his asylum claim, he noted that Mr. Tarraf had filed his application more than one year after entering the country and had not demonstrated changed or exceptional circumstances to overcome the statutory bar in 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a)(2)(B). Turning to his claim for withholding of removal, the IJ reviewed Mr. Tarraf's in-court testimony. He noted the claims of his brother's murder in 1990 and of the 1994 incident in which Mr. Tarraf was shot, but continued, despite his refusal to support the Hezbollah, he continued to return to Lebanon every year without great difficulty, including one stretch of more than a year shortly before leaving for the United States in 2000. A.R. at 50. The IJ noted that his final departure followed, according to Mr. Tarraf, an arrest and detention of a month, during which time he was beaten and pressured to join Hezbollah; he also noted that Mr. Tarraf believed that he would be harmed or killed for his continued refusal to cooperate with Hezbollah. After reviewing the Government's objections to relief, the IJ determined that Mr. Tarraf's applications should be denied. He concluded that Mr. Tarraf's testimony was not credible and that he had failed to explain the discrepancies or provide corroborative evidence or detailed facts affect[ing] his credibility and also prevent[ing] him from meeting his standard of proof. Id. at 52. On the credibility issue, the IJ noted that a petitioner's testimony alone can establish the basis for asylum, but must be detailed, credible and persuasive, all of which he found lacking in this case. The IJ stated that, if Mr. Tarraf had feared persecution since 1990 when his brother was killed, his repeated trips to Lebanon undercut his claimed fear. The IJ next considered the 1994 incident in which Mr. Tarraf testified that he had been shot by Hezbollah while leaving his parents' home. The IJ noted that Mr. Tarraf had been taken by the shooters to receive medical treatment and was permitted to leave the clinic without incident. The IJ further observed that Mr. Tarraf had provided virtually no details in his description of this event. Again, the IJ noted that he returned home on numerous occasions following the incident. Under these circumstances, the IJ concluded that this incident did not support a finding that Hezbollah sought to harm Mr. Tarraf. More significant to the credibility issue, according to the IJ, were the drastic discrepancies between the written application and the in-court testimony, specifically in regard to the final claimed incident in 2000. Id. at 54. Given that Mr. Tarraf had left Lebanon permanently in response to this final incident, the IJ concluded that the discrepancies went to the heart of Mr. Tarraf's credibility and his claim. Id. The IJ did not believe that it made sense that the most serious allegations of persecution were not presented or were grossly understated in Mr. Tarraf's written application submitted before trial. Therefore, the IJ concluded that Mr. Tarraf's in-[c]ourt contention that he was held for one month and tortured by Hezbollah [was] simply not credible in light of this inconsistency. Id. at 55. The IJ went on to state that, even if Mr. Tarraf was shot in 1994 and detained in 2000 for the shorter period of three days that he had described in his written application, those incidents did not rise to the level of past persecution. The IJ ruled that, if Mr. Tarraf had been shot in 1994, the circumstances surrounding the injury as described remain unclear. Id. at 56. The three-day detention and questioning without any evidence that he was seriously injured, that he needed medical attention or hospitalization following his detention did not support a finding of past persecution. Id. Having found no past persecution, and finding that the fear of future persecution rested on the testimony regarding past events that he had ruled was exaggerated and false, the IJ stated that Mr. Tarraf had not shown that it was more likely than not that he would be persecuted if returned. Id. Because he already had determined that the testimony was not credible, the IJ further stated that the absence of corroborative evidence was fatal to Mr. Tarraf's claim. The IJ denied the claim for CAT relief on the same basis.