(CN) - A bipolar man who says he was repeatedly tortured in Tanzania where mental illness is regarded as demon possession may qualify for U.S. asylum, the 4th Circuit ruled.

Homeland Security had tried to deport Tumaini Temu back to Tanzania in 2010, four years after his temporary visa expired. In his application for asylum, withholding of removal and relief under the Convention Against Torture, Temu claimed that his mental illness put him in a persecuted social group in his home country.

Though an immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals denied Temu's application, a divided three-judge panel of the Richmond, Va.-based federal appeals court reversed Thursday.

It is uncontested, according to the ruling, that the young man suffered a mental breakdown and was forced to withdraw during his final year at the University of Dar es Salaam after learning that his mother had been killed in an automobile accident.

"During his manic episodes, Mr. Temu believes he has superhuman powers," Judge Roger Gregory wrote for the majority. "He is visibly erratic and often walks into busy intersections to direct traffic because he thinks he has the ability to prevent car accidents."

Beginning in 2003, Temu bounced between "treatment" at Muhimbili Hospital and extended prison stays, both of which involved abuse, including beatings with clubs that grew so severe that he could not walk.

At his asylum hearing, two expert witnesses for Temu testified that Tanzanians consider mental illness shameful and a manifestation of demonic possession, which they fear is contagious.

Those who visibly suffer from severe mental illness there are referred to as "mwenda wazimu," a phrase that means demon-possessed.

Temu testified that Muhimbili Hospital nurses bound his hands and feet for five to seven hours a day, four days a week. When his condition worsened, they allegedly kept him tied while they beat him with leather straps for hours and days at a time.

"The record is unequivocal about what motivated the nurses' and guard's behavior," Gregory wrote. "Throughout all his hospitalizations, the nurses referred to Mr. Temu as 'mwenda wazimu.' The record also shows that while binding Mr. Temu and bearing him with leather straps, the nurses said on multiple occasions, 'this is how we treat people who are mentally ill like you.'"

Temu came to the United States after his family rejected him and he was hospitalized here after police found him standing in the middle of the street attempting to direct traffic during a manic episode.

Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Temu learned that he could work and function independently so long as he took medication.