MOSCOW, May 20 (RIA Novosti) - A man in the Russian southern Urals region of Tyumen has gone to court to challenge a death certificate issued in his name, the regional Prosecutor General's website reported on Wednesday.

The 45-year-old man said that three years ago his estranged wife had identified the body of an unknown person to be his and a death certificate was issued.

He said that his wife had obviously made a mistake, probably because the two have not been living together since 1994.

The problem surfaced when the man's passport was about to expire and his application for a new one was unfortunately refused because records showed he was deceased.