Opinion ID: 2976568
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Officially Sanctioned Torture as Persecution

Text: Torture is an activity which is almost universally condemned by civilized governments. Under the Convention Against Torture no signatory nation may engage in the practice of torture, and indeed such nations must take affirmative action to prevent torture from occurring within their jurisdiction. Dec. 10, 1984, art. 2, 1465 U.N.T.S. 85, 23 I.L.M. 1027, 1028. This prohibition is absolute. “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.” Id. Under the Convention, torture is defined as: [A]ny act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. Id., art. 1. The Convention Against Torture has over 140 signatory nations including the United States, and though a handful of nations, such as Iran, Iraq and North Korea, have declined to join this prohibition on torture, it is safe to say that the overwhelming majority of “civilized governments” join the Convention’s condemnation of officially sanctioned torture. See Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, available at http://untreaty.un.org/ENGLISH/bible/englishinternetbible/partI/chapterIV/treaty14.asp. Moreover, 10 applying the Convention’s definition of torture to the instant facts demonstrates that the harm inflicted on Petitioner is exactly the sort of “severe pain or suffering” which the Convention and its signatory nations condemn. Petitioner was detained, tied up and beaten repeatedly by police officers wearing masks, suffering injuries that left him unable to move one arm. Moreover, the BIA found that this officially sanctioned harm was inflicted as punishment for Petitioner’s refusal to fire upon defenseless political protestors, and appears to have occurred for the purpose of intimidating other police officers against following Petitioner’s example. Such maltreatment at the hands of government officials is at least as severe as maltreatment that we have previously stated may amount to torture. See Ali v. Reno, 237 F.3d 591, 593, 598 (6th Cir. 2001) (a person who was kicked, beaten and threatened with a gun experienced sufficiently severe treatment to constitute “torture,” even though no lasting injuries were inflicted). Accordingly, we hold that Petitioner was a victim of torture, an activity which is condemned by civilized governments. Convention Against Torture, art. 1. Moreover, as we defer to the BIA’s findings that Petitioner was tortured by government officials as punishment for his politically motivated actions, we hold that Petitioner experienced “the infliction of suffering or harm, under government sanction, upon persons who differ in a way regarded as offensive (e.g. race, religion, political opinion, etc.), in a manner condemned by civilized governments.” H.R.Rep. No. 95-1452, at 7.