Kramer Levin Wins Asylum For Client Who Fled Torture and Persecution in Chad

Allison D. Gray, Abdul-Rahman A. Lediju and Steve L. Schiliro have obtained political asylum for a 34 year old refugee from Chad. In 2007, the client was brutally tortured by the Chadian secret service following his brother’s defection from the Chadian military to join an anti-government rebel group. The client escaped after being imprisoned for several days. He then spent several months in hiding, convinced that he faced certain death if discovered, before eventually fleeing to the United States.

Upon referral of the case by Human Rights First, the Kramer Levin team filed an affirmative asylum application. Several months of evidence gathering followed, including obtaining affidavits from witnesses in Chad and from medical and psychological experts, and securing files from social services institutions the client visited in the U.S. before seeking asylum. The team wrote a lengthy brief and then represented the client at his interview with the Department of Homeland Security, which granted asylum two weeks later. The case posed a particular challenge because the client, having lost consciousness during his initial torture, was unable to remember much about his time in captivity. In addition, two of the client’s cousins, who initially agreed to provide affidavits, ultimately failed to do so, the first because of fear of retribution from the Chadian government and the second out of reluctance to betray the client’s brother who joined the rebel group. Matthew Abbott supervised the work.