Opinion ID: 445617
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The hearing witnesses' testimony.

Text: 57 The IJ also carefully analyzed the hearing testimony of the government witnesses to determine if they established that Laipenieks had assisted or participated in persecutorial acts. Only three of the hearing witnesses testified about persecutorial acts allegedly engaged in by Laipenieks; Arnold Berzins, Edward Virsis and Ber Maister. 58 Berzins and Virsis testified at the hearing that Laipenieks had beaten them. Berzins recalled that the person he knew as Laipenieks was dressed in a jacket with black boots and knee length pants. Not one of the other eleven government witnesses who asserted that they had seen Laipenieks at the central headquarters or prison described Laipenieks as similarly attired. The IJ observed that Laipenieks' brother, Miervaldis Laipenieks, was also employed at the prison. Noting the strikingly different descriptions in dress between Berzins' testimony and the other witnesses, the IJ found that Berzins was most likely confusing the two brothers. 59 Virsis' testimony was found to be even less convincing. His account at the hearing of his beating was at sharp odds with a 1947 statement he made to the French police. For instance, in his 1947 statement, Virsis asserted that Laipenieks was a Deputy Chief of the German Gestapo. At the hearing, he modified his story and testified that Laipenieks was a member of the LPP. 60 Finally, the IJ found Maister's testimony lacking in credibility. First, he noted that several pre-hearing statements made by Maister in relation to the alleged beating were at significant variance with his hearing testimony. In addition, while Maister identified Laipenieks at the hearing, the IJ observed that on two separate occasions in 1974 and 1975 Maister had been unable to identify Laipenieks from a photo spread. 61