FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT ZHIHUI GUO, No. 15-70617 Petitioner, Agency No. A201-200-204 v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, Attorney OPINION General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Argued and Submitted April 10, 2018 Pasadena, California Filed July 30, 2018 Before: Danny J. Boggs,* Jay S. Bybee, and Paul J. Watford, Circuit Judges. Opinion by Judge Bybee * The Honorable Danny J. Boggs, United States Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, sitting by designation. 2 GUO V. SESSIONS SUMMARY** Immigration The panel granted a petition for review as to the Board of Immigration Appeals’ denial of Zhihui Guo’s applications for asylum and withholding of removal, and denied the petition as to protection under the Convention against Torture. Police arrested Guo for attending a Christian “home church,” beat him with a baton and detained him for two days, forbade him from attending his home church, and required him to report to the police weekly to verify his compliance. The panel held that this evidence compelled the conclusion that Guo suffered past persecution. The panel explained that in addition to the physical mistreatment, which caused Guo to seek medical attention, the police effectively prevented Guo from practicing his religion and living a Christian life. The panel remanded Guo’s asylum and withholding claims for the Board to apply the rebuttable presumption that Guo will experience further persecution if returned to China. The panel held that Guo failed to establish a clear probability of torture. ** This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. GUO V. SESSIONS 3 COUNSEL Albert S. Chow (argued), Lin & Chow, Monterey Park, California, for Petitioner. John Frederick Stanton (argued) and Sergio Sarkany, Trial Attorneys; Kiley Kane, Senior Litigation Counsel; Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.; for Respondent. OPINION BYBEE, Circuit Judge: Petitioner Zhihui Guo is a Chinese citizen who entered the United States in 2010 on a student visa and stayed beyond its duration. He seeks review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) denial of his claims for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). In mid-2010, Chinese police arrested Petitioner1 for attending a Christian “home church,” eventually beating him with a baton and detaining him for two days. Under the terms of his release, Petitioner could never again attend his home church and was required to report to the police weekly to verify his compliance. The BIA concluded that these oppressive conditions did not rise to the level of religious persecution, portraying the harm Petitioner suffered as “a single, isolated encounter with the authorities.” We are compelled to disagree. By 1 We refer to Mr. Guo as “Petitioner” to avoid confusion with a case frequently cited below using the same surname. 4 GUO V. SESSIONS forbidding Petitioner from attending ...
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