Claim: WikiLeaks released a new documentary on Imran Khan after a recent report by the United Nations Working Group declared his imprisonment as unlawful.
Fact: The claim is misleading because the interview of Imran Khan by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was originally recorded and released in 2012, not 2024. WikiLeaks shared footage of the decade-old interview on X again, on 2 July 2024, in light of the recent report on Khan’s imprisonment by the United Nations Working Group.
On 3 July 2024, a user on X shared a video (archive) with the caption,
امریکن کانگریس اور اقوامِ متحدہ کی قرارداد کے بعد گزشتہ رات وکی لیکس نے ہمارے کپتان عمران خان پر اپنی مکمل ڈاکومینٹری جاری کر دی.
Translation [After the American Congress and United Nations resolution, last night WikiLeaks released its full documentary on our captain Imran Khan].
The 26-minute-long video shows WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange interviewing Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan.
Background
On 25 June 2024, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for an independent and fair investigation into alleged irregularities in Pakistan’s general elections held in February 2024. The resolution echoed the allegations of rigging levelled by Khan and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). However, Pakistan’s parliament denounced the resolution saying it’s an internal matter, and that the US has no right to intervene.
According to an opinion released on 1 July 2024, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that Imran Khan had been unlawfully detained in defiance of international law. The group said his proceedings lacked a legal foundation, questioned their legitimacy, and advised the government to release Khan immediately.
Currently imprisoned in Adiala Jail, Khan is serving a sentence of seven years in a case which declared his marriage un-Islamic. Earlier, he was sentenced to fourteen years in the Toshakhana case, which was later suspended by the Islamabad High Court in April 2024. Additionally, Khan was acquitted in the cipher case in June 2024, making the case of his marriage the only reason behind his imprisonment.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse image search on the video’s keyframes to investigate. The search on Google led to a news article published by WION on 26 July 2018, which includes a screengrab from the video of Khan’s interview.
According to the title of the article, the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, interviewed Imran Khan “6 years ago” in 2012. Wikileaks had retweeted a “2012 video of founder Julian Assange interviewing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan” after Khan declared victory in the 2018 general elections, the article detailed.
Assange had conducted this interview on a video call while taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK at the time, the article added and included a YouTube link to the video of Khan’s interview, which is no longer available.
Recently, after the UN Working Group report was made public, WikiLeaks reshared the interview on X on 2 July 2024, with the following caption: “Another prisoner of the US empire.
Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s imprisonment violates international law and he should be released immediately and compensated – UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
Julian Assange spoke to Imran Khan in this revealing 2012 interview”.
Over the years, WikiLeaks has reposted the same interview multiple times on X. It was shared after Khan was arrested on 9 May in 2023, and again on 5 August 2023 when Imran Khan was disqualified and sentenced to three years in jail.
The complete interview was also uploaded on YouTube in 2018, on the channel Journeyman Pictures. According to the description, the video is an episode of the 2012 TV series called, “The Julian Assange Show” — also known as “World Tomorrow” — originally aired on 19 June 2012.
It is important to note that the contents of the interview are old, and the discussion revolves around Khan’s emerging career in politics at the time. The interview itself does not involve any discussion of Khan’s current imprisonment.
Virality
On X, the video received 9,000 views, and another post by a PTI supporter Arslan Baloch, received 230.4k views, 28,000 likes and 14,000 reposts. The archived versions can be seen here, here and here.
On Facebook, the old video was shared with a misleading caption here, and on PTI member Qasim Khan Suri’s verified page here.
Conclusion: The interview of Imran Khan with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is from 2012, not 2024. Viral posts on social media claiming that the interview is a new documentary, released after the UN Working Group’s recent report on Khan’s imprisonment, are misleading.
Background image in cover photo: PTI Official
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