self-serving declarations of persecution are insufficient
How later courts described this case
- self-serving declarations of persecution are insufficient
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
GEORGE CLIFTON EDWARDS, Jr., Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I cannot join in sending appellant Nasser back to Iraq on the present record, which totally fails to resolve Nasser’s claims of past and prospective religious and political persecution of him and his family. Nasser claims that his father, a Christian, had been beaten by a Baath mob and died as a result of the beating. Nasser also claims that he had been beaten by Baath agents in 1980 because he refused to join their party. Although I recognize that his testimony may be “self-serving” (as is any effort to save one’s life), I cannot on this record ignore or discount it as the INS has done. I would remand for taking of further evidence bearing on the acts of persecution to which Nasser has testified under oath.