Aktanov

*755 MEMORANDUM **

Raul Aktanov (“Aktanov”) seeks review of a Board of Immigration Appeals’s (“BIA”) decision affirming an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his application for asylum and withholding of removal. The BIA determined that the actions of the Kazakhstan secret police (“KNB”) were legitimate attempts to prosecute Aktanov for violating Kazakh law, rather than to persecute him on account of his political opinion. We grant the petition for review and remand for further proceedings.

Because the BIA avoided making a credibility determination in its decision, finding that Aktanov would be ineligible for asylum “even if we deem [him] to be credible,” we assume Aktanov’s testimony is credible in reviewing the BIA’s decision. See Canjura-Flores v. INS, 784 F.2d 885, 889 (9th Cir.1985).

The record compels the conclusion that Aktanov was persecuted on account of his political opinion. “[W]hen a government harms or punishes someone without undertaking ‘any formal prosecutorial measures,’ it engages in persecution and not legitimate prosecution.” Ramirez Rivas v. INS, 899 F.2d 864, 868 (9th Cir.1990) (quoting Blanco-Lopez v. INS, 858 F.2d 531, 534 (9th Cir.1988)). Aktanov…