Yonan

MEMORANDUM **

Lewis Esho Yonan, a native and citizen of Iraq, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeal’s (BIA) decision dismissing his appeal from an Immigration Judge’s (IJ’s) denial of his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT). Yonan’s wife, Lamya Yousif A1 Sabagh, and his minor son, Alex Lewis Yonan, applied for asylum as derivative beneficiaries of Yonan’s claim. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 , and we grant the petition.

“Where ... the BIA has reviewed the IJ’s decision and incorporated portions of it as its own, we treat the incorporated parts of the IJ’s decision as the BIA’s.” Molina-Estrada v. INS, 293 F.3d 1089, 1093 (9th Cir.2002). The denial of asylum is reviewed for substantial evidence. See Kataria v. INS, 232 F.3d 1107, 1112 (9th Cir.2000).

Yonan claimed that he was persecuted on account of his religion during two distinct time periods: first, in 1990-91 when he was conscripted into the Iraqi military and harassed, detained, beaten, and threatened with death; and second, in 1997, in the Kurdish controlled region of Northern Iraq, where he was harassed and his…