Dead Man Walking

I thought this only happened in movies:

"'We cannot do anything for you, because you are dead!'

"This is what a bank clerk told an astonished Qatari national, G.M., before breaking into laughter. But it wasn't a joke.

"G.M. is officially deceased, Qatar's public records say, since May 30, 2005, when a health ministry employee wrote his ID number in the records of a dead man having the same name.

"Since that day, G.M., who is alive and well, has been pleading in vain with the local authorities to correct the mistake and give him back his right to be alive."