Fact Check: Viral video does NOT show Imran Khan in jail, it is old and edited

A video of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan looking visibly distressed has been making the rounds on social media. Khan, in the video, could be seen sitting with his eyes closed. Allegedly, the video showed Khan’s third night in prison. Khan was convicted in the Toshakhana case and sentenced to three years of imprisonment on August 5. He was arrested the same day.

Sharing the clip on Twitter, one person wrote, “Third night in jail, all because he dared to dream. He dared to stand up against the mafia that’s the root cause for this country’s devastation. Sucks.” Archived versions of such posts can be found here and here.

India Today found that this video is edited and it predates the arrest of Imran Khan.

Our Probe

The viral clip contained the URL and logo of a Pakistan-based media outlet named “We News”. We ran a keyword search on its YouTube channel and found a video similar to the one going viral.

In the clip, Khan could be heard talking about the Pakistan Democratic Movement or PDM, a coalition formed in 2020 by 11 political parties, including Pakistan’s People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League (PML), demanding the ouster of the then Prime Minister Imran Khan.

We then found a longer version of Khan’s interview shared by “We News” on August 1, which contained the visuals that are currently going viral. In the video, Khan talked about the then-ongoing Toshakhana trial.

India Today contacted a journalist working with We News, to get more information about the viral video. He told us that this video was shot by a We News correspondent on August 1 inside the premises of the Islamabad Session Court. He added that following Khan's arrest, no reporter had spoken to him.

It is worth noting that the video predates Khan’s arrest. Further, in this video, Khan’s eyes were not shut, suggesting that the viral clip was edited. A comparison between the viral video and the same shots in the original video can be seen below.

We then found that many YouTube channels shared the viral video in a better resolution. These videos contained a logo of a TikTok account named “saad_hamdani_786”. We found that this account shared the viral video on August 7.

A new TikTok trend involves using an AR filter called “closed eyes”. When applied, it makes it look as though a person’s eyes are shut even if they aren’t. It is possible that this filter was applied to Khan’s video. An example of such a video can be seen here.

Thus, it is more than clear that an old and edited video of Khan was shared with misleading claims.