Constantin Reliu left Romania for Turkey in 1992, cutting off all contact with his family. After years of silence from her estranged husband, Reliu’s wife assumed that he had died in an earthquake that happened in Turkey and obtained a backdated death certificate for him. He may never have found out about his death in his homeland had he not been apprehended by Turkish authorities for having an expired visa and deported back to Romania. Reliu had planned to renew his passport in Romania and return to Turkey, but on arrival, he was detained by immigration officers who informed him that he had died in 2003. Reliu asked the court to overturn the death certificate, but the court rejected his petition solely because the legal appeal window had passed, leaving him officially dead despite standing alive in court. Reliu wasn’t going to give up, so he filed a separate lawsuit in a different jurisdiction. The new court accepted his claim and officially annulled the invalid death certificate, restoring his status as a living citizen.
