Slivka

MEMORANDUM ***

Stefan Slivka, a citizen and native of the Slovak Republic, petitions for review of the BIA’s order affirming and adopting the IJ’s decision denying Slivka’s application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). We deny the petition.

Although a victim of extortion may, under certain circumstances, qualify for asylum, he must “establish the requisite nexus between his political opposition to government corruption and the retaliatory persecution that he suffered.” Fedunyak v. Gonzales, 477 F.3d 1126, 1129 (9th Cir.2007). In Slivka’s case, this nexus is absent. Substantial evidence supports the IJ’s conclusion that the extortionists who attacked Slivka were motivated by purely economic or personal interests. First, the evidence does not establish that Slivka necessarily complained of police corruption. He told the IJ that his complaint to the court was that “certain people are blackmailing me, and then I went to police, and police did not do anything with it.” Slivka’s complaint to the court, which he withdrew before it could be acted upon in any event, was about police inaction, not corruption.

Second, even if the…