Hani Kazemzadeh v. U.S. Attorney General, No. 08-12857 (11th Cir., Aug. 6, 2009)
Excerpted from the opinion:
This petition for review, filed by an Iranian who has converted from Islam to Christianity and claims to fear persecution in Iran where apostasy is punishable by death, places this Court between Scylla and Charybdis. A denial of review will return the petitioner to the theocratic regime in Iran, but an erroneous grant of review could establish a precedent that rewards less than genuine fears of persecution based on religious conversion . . .
Although substantial evidence supports the decision of the Board that Kazemzadeh failed to prove a well-founded fear of persecution based on his political opinion, the Board failed to give reasoned consideration to Kazemzadeh’s evidence of a well-founded fear of persecution based on his religion. There is evidence that the law against apostasy is not often enforced in Iran, but neither the Board nor the Immigration Judge considered Kazemzadeh’s testimony that Iranians who convert from Islam to Christianity avoid punishment by instead suffering persecution by practicing underground . . .
We deny Kazemzadeh’s petition about political persecution, and we grant Kazemzadeh’s petition about religious persecution, vacate the decision of the Board about that claim, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
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