Aghajani

MEMORANDUM

Hamed Aghajani appeals from the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (the BIA) denial of his petition for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). The BIA upheld the findings of the Immigration Judge (IJ) that Aghajani was not credible.

Both the IJ and the BIA determined that Aghajani’s testimony was inconsistent and thus not credible for the following reasons: (1) Aghajani testified that he was barred from school following his participation in a 1999 demonstration in Tehran and that he was too depressed to do much of anything, but evidence in the record purportedly showed that he attended a different school during this period; (2) one of the summonses that he received was dated June 1999, before the demonstration, which conflicted with his testimony that he had no involvement with law enforcement prior to that event; and (3) his testimony about his mental-health treatment conflicted with a letter from one of his doctors.

With respect to the first basis for the adverse credibility finding, the record appears to be ambiguous. Aghajani attempted to explain the factual discrepancy in his schooling by stating that he completed his…