Claim: An image shows former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent appearance inside a court in Adiala Jail.
Fact: The image is AI-generated. Khan has not been produced in court in person since his arrest in August 2023. He has joined proceedings via video link.
On 27 June 2026, a Facebook account named Taj Muhammad shared an image in a group called ‘Imran Khan Lovers’. The picture shows former Prime Minister Imran Khan standing handcuffed inside a courtroom. The caption reads:
جون اڈیالہ جیل میں عمران خان کی عدالت میں پیشی کے دوران لی گئی تازہ تصویر سوشل میڈیا پر وائرل…27”
“-اللہ پاک عمران خان کی مشکلات آسان کرے سب بولو آمین
Translation: [“A recent picture taken during Imran Khan’s court appearance in Adiala Jail went viral on social media. May Allah ease Imran Khan’s difficulties, everyone say Amen.”]
The picture went viral across Facebook and other social media platforms, including Instagram and X.
Posts viral on Facebook, Instagram and X
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first looked for recent news updates related to Imran Khan’s imprisonment. The results led to a news article published on Dawn, on 27 June 2026, titled “Aleema challenged PTI founder Imran Khan’s solitary confinement before IHC.” The report mentioned Imran Khan’s sister, Aleema Khan, filing a petition in Islamabad High Court against the former PM’s “alleged solitary confinement.” According to the petition, no one in Khan’s family or the PTI leadership has been allowed to meet him for “the past six months” while Aleema Khan described his detention conditions as unlawful and inhumane.
Soch Fact Check then observed a few visual discrepancies in the picture like Khan’s elongated index finger and the blurred court emblem behind the sitting judge.
Visual discrepancies observed in the image under investigation
Soch Fact Check ran the image through a tool designed by OpenAI to check if it was created using the American artificial company’s tools. It detected a SynthID watermark that originated from OpenAI.
Result by OpenAI
Moreover, Soch Fact Check also reached out to Saqib Bashir, a senior court reporter for 92 News. His statement has been translated in English below:
“First of all, Imran Khan has never been presented in court handcuffed. He has never been presented in court after getting arrested on 5 August [2023]. Secondly, the jail’s courtroom does not look like this, there is no place for a prisoner to stand in a segregated portion like this. In the past, a hall was built for activities which has been temporarily turned into a court. There’s a chair, a rostrum; presently the court does not look like the one you see in the picture.”
Soch Fact Check also couldn’t find any credible reports that state Khan has been presented in court in person since his arrest in August 2023. He has joined certain proceedings via video link only.
The results from OpenAI’s tool, a senior court reporter’s comment, and the absence of news reports on the matter, confirm that the image showing Khan standing in court is not real.
Virality
Soch Fact Check first came across a viral post on Facebook which had as high as 2,500 likes and 214 shares. Other posts were equally viral, particularly two which garnered 3,900 and 406 likes separately. The image widely circulated on X as well as on Instagram.
This isn’t the first time an AI-generated picture showing Imran Khan in jail has gone viral on social media; Soch Fact Check has debunked several other similar pictures of the incarcerated PTI founder. while Khan remains out of the public eye completely.
The viral image shared on Facebook, Instagram and X is AI-generated
Conclusion: An image of former Prime Minister Imran Khan standing handcuffed inside a courtroom is AI-generated.
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com