Argh. I recently had to patch the platform this site runs on and I have noticed a few glitches. You will probably notice some of them if you poke around, at least until I find time to lint-pick. For example, today I mysteriously lost a post or two, including one about a BBC man who was jailed by a case of mistaken identity. My comment was basically that the story made the mainstream news most likely because of the victim’s affiliation. The story is here.

The arrest warrant had a photo which obviously wasn’t me and the passport number didn’t even match my own. It was all so absurd I thought the mix-up would be sorted within hours. Instead I found myself in a Slovenian court.

Details, details. He is lucky he did not discover the problem in the American system, or he might have been shuffled off without any chance to defend himself.

My brother, who’d flown over from the UK, collected me with consulate staff. My flight was the next day so I booked into a hotel and to kill time I went for a walk with my brother. By coincidence we bumped into one of the policemen who’d arrested me.

Uh, huh. What a “coincidence” to run into the police. Either this guy is incredibly naive, or the police in Slovenia do a terrible job of silently trailing suspects. I wonder if they literally “bumped” into each other.

He said he thought I was not the right man, but had to do his job – and he didn’t want me to go away with a bad impression of Slovenia or its people. I haven’t. But psychologically it’s hit me hard and will always live with me. My name has been removed from international “wanted persons” files but I still worry about travelling. Plans to visit the United States next year have been cancelled because I’m worried about US immigration.

A bad impression? I believe far fewer mistakes could have been made. Was this the fault of the policeman, who apparently could tell something was off from the start, or the “system” of detection that he is meant to enforce?