Yesaian

MEMORANDUM *

Sarkis Yesaian, a native and citizen of Iran, petitions for review of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals affirming an immigration judge’s denial of his applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture. 1 The IJ found that Yes-aian was not a credible witness due largely, though not exclusively, to inconsistencies between his testimony at the first and the second hearings on the merits of his applications for relief. We deny Yesaian’s petition for review.

We must sustain the IJ’s adverse credibility determination for two reasons. First, one of the grounds the IJ offered in support of the credibility finding did not depend on the transcript from the first merits hearing, that is, the transcript on which Yesaian contends the IJ should not have relied. Rather, in this instance, the IJ pointed to a significant discrepancy between Yesaian’s asylum application and his testimony at the second merits hearing, regarding whether he was arrested and taken to the Commiteh after “religious people” attacked him and his wife at home in October 1997. Failing to remember whether one was arrested after such an incident surely…