FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION FEB 18 2010
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U .S. C O U R T OF APPE ALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
ARMEN APELYAN, No. 05-77165
Petitioner, Agency No. A097-115-644
v.
MEMORANDUM *
ERIC H. HOLDER Jr., Attorney General,
Respondent.
On Petition for Review of an Order of the
Board of Immigration Appeals
Argued and Submitted December 8, 2009
San Francisco, California
Before: SCHROEDER, LUCERO , ** and CALLAHAN, Circuit Judges.
Armen Apelyan, a native and citizen of Armenia, petitions for review of the
Board of Immigration Appeals’s (“BIA”) decision upholding the adverse
credibility finding of the Immigration Judge (“IJ”), and the denial of petitioner’s
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
**
The Honorable Carlos F. Lucero, U.S. Circuit Judge for the Tenth
Circuit, sitting by designation.
application for asylum, withholding of removal and relief under the Convention
Against Torture (“CAT”).
The BIA affirmed because both petitioner’s written application and hearing
testimony, that he was imprisoned in 1998 on suspicion of participation in a plot
for an assassination, were inconsistent with the historical record that the
assassination did not occur until 2000. The inconsistency went to the heart of his
claim, as our law requires in order to support an adverse credibility determination.
Li v. Ashcroft, 378 F.3d 959, 964 (9th Cir. 2004).
When confronted at the hearing with the inconsistency, petitioner said there
had been a mistake in the translations and that he meant to say he was falsely
arrested for suspected planning, not participation. Neither the IJ nor the BIA
accepted the explanation and there was no compelling reason for them to do so.
Don v. Gonzales, 476 F.3d 738, 742 (9th Cir. 2007).
The petition for review is DENIED.
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