Chowdhury

MEMORANDUM **

Shanin Chowdhury petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) dismissal of his application for asylum and withholding of deportation. Chowdhury’s wife and minor daughter are derivative applicants whose petitions depend exclusively on the merits of Chow-dhury’s petition. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a), Kalaw v. INS, 133 F.3d 1147, 1150 (9th Cir.1997), and we grant the petition.

Chowdhury argues that substantial evidence does not support the BIA’s independent adverse credibility finding that his testimony was inconsistent. We agree. The BIA found that Chowdhury failed to adequately explain: 1) internal inconsistencies in his testimony regarding the reasons why and time periods during which authorities searched for him; and 2) a seeming inconsistency in his brother’s letter concerning when his theater was destroyed. The BIA erred as a matter of law in concluding that these seeming inconsistencies undermined Chowdhury’s asylum claim.

Extensive uncontested evidence confirms Chowdhury’s core story that he was persecuted by members of the Bangladesh National Party (“BNP”). First, an affidavit from the Vice Chairman of the Jatiyo Party…