Ahmed

MEMORANDUM ****

Monzur Ahmed is a native and citizen of Bangladesh. Ahmed appeals the denial of his petition for asylum and withholding. We deny his petition.

Substantial evidence supports the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) adverse credibility finding. The IJ noted significant discrepancies between Ahmed’s accounts of the timing of the attacks against him as set forth in his asylum application and those described in his oral testimony that go to the heart of his claim. See Shire v. Ashcroft, 388 F.3d 1288, 1296-97 (9th Cir. 2004). For example, in his asylum application, Ahmed’s sworn statement declares that he joined the BNP because he had been beaten by members of opposing political parties who “used to scare [him] with guns and knives” and tell him that “[t]hey would do the same to [his] family.” This contradicts his testimony before the IJ, where he affirmatively stated on several occasions that he had never been harmed by anyone prior to joining the BNP. Ahmed tried to explain this discrepancy, saying that he could not remember every incident. The IJ correctly found however, that forgetting that he was beaten and that his family was threatened with knives and guns is not a…