To establish eligibility for asylum in the United States, a petitioner must prove that he or she is unable or unwilling to return to his or her country of origin because of persecution or a well-founded fear “on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a political social group, or political opinion” [8 U.S.C. §§ 1158(b)(1)(B)(i)]. Here the petitioners seek asylum after police in Armenia detained, beat and threatened one of them after he was seen talking to a reporter following a confrontation with the city’s military chief of police. The U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals [BIA] denied the couple asylum because they did not demonstrate he was persecuted because of his political beliefs, but merely showed Armenian military police detained him because they thought he was speaking with a reporter to overthrow the Armenian government. The federal appeals court ordered the BIA to consider the matter again, next time analyzing whether the man was persecuted on account of his imputed political opinions. (Khudaverdyan v. Holder (Ninth Cir.; February 27, 2015) 778 F.3d 1101.)
