Shirvanyan

MEMORANDUM **

Robert Shirvanyan petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ streamlined affirmance of the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) decision. The IJ denied Shirvanyan’s requests for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”) 1 because the persecutor’s bar precluded relief. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We deny the petition as to the asylum and withholding claims, grant it as to the CAT claim, and remand.

Substantial evidence supports the IJ’s determination that Shirvanyan was a persecutor. 2 Although Shirvanyan did not personally strike a Jehovah’s Witness, he was an active participant in the encounters during which such events occurred. 3 He knew that he and fellow officers were going to the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses and that the officers would beat Jehovah’s Witnesses. Nevertheless, he chose to participate in these raiding parties and to continue in his job as a policeman, knowing he would be expected to participate in the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Thus, substantial evidence supports the IJ’s application of the persecutor’s bar to preclude relief for asylum, 4 withholding of removal,…