Court Finds Asylum Eligibility for Pentecostal Russian
The First Circuit found Petitioner established eligibility for asylum and that the BIA erred when it found that the persecution the Petitioner experienced in Russia was not “on account of” his Pentecostal faith. An important part of the court’s analysis was the inaction of the police:
“Seen in this context, these abuses also demonstrate the requisite nexus to government action or inaction. Here, Ivanov testified that his parents contacted the police when skinheads kidnapped him for three days in April 2002, but no follow-up action was taken. There is nothing in the record to suggest that Ivanov’s abusers were ever apprehended, punished, or even looked for, in spite of having severely beaten and detained him for three days.”