Appellate Law

CA1:Cambodian fishing cop not oppressed

By S. COTUS

Nou v. Mukasey, No. 07-1546.  Judge Dyk of the Federal Circuit says this ?we conclude that the BIA did not err in rejecting Nou?s asylum claim and in denying Nou?s petition for judicial review.?  I believe that he might not be that detail-oriented, because the BIA did not receive a petition for judicial review, but rather the First Circuit did.  This would appear to be a failure of detail-orientation, or maybe details are not important.  It would be interesting to get some clarification on that one. 

Anyway, the petitioner is a Cambodian who was ?charged with enforcing Cambodian fishing laws.?  (There is no evidence that he attended a real law school.)  One day he was threatened by soldiers that wanted to fish using hand grenades which is technically illegal in Cambodia.  But, he was dogged.  He later on arrested other fishermen for using grenades and electricity to kill fish. However, the people arrested were of a different political party.  Later he was fired, and he left the country.

The IJ said that this didn?t look like political persecution.  Judge Dyk doesn?t perform much analysis.  Whatever. 

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on September 19, 2008 (boomark / email).