Rahimzadeh v. Holder (PUB)

**Withholding, gov’t control, use of country conditions evidence** 

Dutch officials did not participate in or sponsor the attacks on Rahimzadeh, so Rahimzadeh must establish that the Dutch government was unable or unwilling to control his attackers.  He has not done so. Rahimzadeh never reported the abuse to police; instead, his evidence of the government’s inability or unwillingness to stop the attacks consists solely of a private threat of harm and the presence of what he estimates to be 280,000 extremist Muslims in the Netherlands.  The reporting of private persecution to authorities leaves a gap in proof about how the government would respond if asked.  It is clear that the IJ treated the failure to report the persecution as merely one factor in the assessment of the Dutch government’s willingness and ability to control private extremists, not as a per se bar to asylum.  The IJ found that the reasons Rahimzadeh gave for not reporting the abuse, namely the private threat of retaliation and his perception of the Netherlands as being home to thousands of fanatical Muslims, did not independently satisfy his burden to establish that the Dutch authorities would have been unable or unwilling to control his attackers, particularly in light of Rahimzadeh’s failure to provide other information about the record of the Dutch authorities in controlling private extremist. The IJ’s conclusion that the Dutch authorities in fact would have been willing and able to control Rahimzadeh’s attackers was supported by substantial evidence, which the IJ properly considered.  The IJ accepted Rahimzadeh’s testimony regarding threats, incidents of abuse, and all the other factual circumstances as to which Rahimzadeh had direct knowledge. The IJ turned to the country reports only to assess the likelihood that government officials would control the persecution, as Rahimzadeh failed to provide any useful evidence on that point through his testimony. 

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2010/07/26/08-73985.pdf