Artak Hayrapetyan v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Petitioner Artak Hayrapetyan, a native and citizen of Armenia, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) denial of his applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. We grant the petition for review and remand for further proceedings consistent with this disposition.

Hayrapetyan asks us to decide, among other things, whether the BIA could reasonably conclude that the government has shown by a preponderance of the evidence that he no longer faces persecution in Armenia. The BIA concluded that the government carried its burden because the foreign minister whom Hayrapetyan’s father accused of corruption is no longer in power and because Hayrapetyan’s family members who remain in Armenia have not been harmed since that minister left office.

We cannot confirm that Hayrapetyan faces no future threat of persecution if we do not know who targeted him in the past. If the now-departed foreign minister was solely responsible for the harm inflicted on Hayrapetyan in the past, then the BIA might be right that the minister’s depar ture from the government means that Hayrapetyan is now safe. But if other…