San Fernando Valley : Arson Suspect Told of Prison Time in Iran

Immigration officials disclosed Friday that the man who allegedly killed his wife and six children this week by setting fire to their Glendale apartment got into the United States by convincing a refugee officer that his imprisonment in Iran was persecution, not punishment for a crime.

In sworn statements in August at the refugee processing center in Istanbul, Jorjik Avanesian, 40, denied committing any criminal offense and characterized his eight-month incarceration as government abuse, said Rosemary Melville, deputy district director of the Los Angeles office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Avanesian has told police and others that he was imprisoned in Iran for stabbing his wife.

INS officials made no attempt to verify Avanesian’s story, Melville said, citing the lack of U.S. diplomatic ties to Iran and refugee policy.

Shortly after his release from prison, Avanesian approached the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. In December 1994, the commission referred him to the INS refugee center, recommending that the family be granted refugee status. The INS took his application and a sworn affidavit that he had no criminal record. An INS officer interviewed Avanesian under oath Aug. 22 and granted his admission request the same day.