Romanian court rejects man's claim he's not dead

A Romanian courtroom has rejected a man's claim that he is alive, despite him standing before them.

"I am officially dead; I am a living ghost," Constantin Reliu, 63, told The Associated Press on Friday.

In 1999, after discovering his wife had been cheating on him, he moved to Turkey. In January this year he returned home only to discover his wife had him officially registered as dead in 2016.

On Thursday he pleaded to a courtroom in Vasliu to overturn his death certificate, but the decision is final, a judge told him.

The bizarre situation is anything but amusing for Mr Reliu.

"I have no income and because I am listed as dead. I can't do anything," he told The Associated Press, on the verge of tears.

His wife now lives in Italy and he has no idea whether he is divorced, or whether she has remarried.

"Nobody will tell me."

Mr Reliu wants to file another lawsuit but has no money, and suffers from diabetes, which he says makes everything more difficult.

He also now cannot return to Turkey, but wants to appeal this decision. - Newshub