Maafi

MEMORANDUM **

Bahram Akbari Maafi, a native and citizen of Iran, petitions for review of the BIA’s decision dismissing his appeal from an IJ’s denial of his applications for asylum, withholding of removal, CAT relief, and voluntary departure. We have jurisdiction over the asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT relief claims under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We lack jurisdiction to review the IJ’s denial of Maafi’s request for voluntary departure. See 8 U.S.C. § 1229c(f). We grant the petition and remand to the BIA.

Maafi was born in Iran and raised as a Muslim but converted to Christianity after a friend introduced him to the religion. He fled Iran after seeing armed government agents surrounding a building where a Christian gathering that he was supposed to attend was taking place. A list identifying him as a Christian was at the Christian gathering and Maafi testified that the government agents likely seized the list. Soon after, he learned that his friend who had introduced him to Christianity had been arrested at that time and sentenced to death. The IJ did not make an explicit adverse credibility finding against Maafi, so we take his testimony to be true. See Kalubi v. Ashcroft, 364…