Pakistan’s top court orders imprisoned former PM Imran Khan taken to hospital, allows family visits

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered authorities to take imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan to a private hospital in the capital for a medical examination, following months of concerns from his family and personal physicians about his health and access to medical care, his lawyers and party officials said.

A three-judge panel ordered that Khan be taken to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad in the coming days and examined by a medical board that will include specialists and one of his personal physicians, Faisal Sultan.

The court also ordered prison officials to allow Khan weekly meetings with family members and telephone calls with his sons. Khan’s family has been struggling to secure access to him and have him examined by physicians of his choice.

Hours after the order, authorities allowed one of Khan's sisters to visit him. Pakistan had barred visitors earlier this year after receiving intelligence reports about a possible attack on the prison where he is being held.

The order came months after Khan petitioned the court, asking to be transferred from a high-security prison in the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi to a hospital and to be allowed access to his personal physicians, family and lawyers.

The court said the order was being issued because Khan’s health was at stake and access to medical care is protected under Pakistan’s constitution, according to Khan’s lawyer Salman Akram Raja.

He urged Khan’s supporters not to gather outside the hospital when the former premier is taken there, saying they should avoid inconveniencing other patients.

Earlier this year, Khan was repeatedly taken to a government hospital for treatment of an eye condition.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party welcomed the court ruling and called on authorities to implement it without delay, saying the order addressed longstanding concerns about his health and access to medical care.

However, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said in televised remarks that the government had reviewed the part of the order concerning Khan’s medical treatment and would ask the court to seek a review of the decision. He said officials had also discussed other aspects of the ruling and questioned whether the order would apply to all prisoners with health problems, noting that many inmates have medical issues and are generally treated at government hospitals.

Concerns about Khan’s health intensified in late January after his family said he had lost about 85% of the vision in his right eye, an assertion the government disputed. Authorities later said Khan regained about 70% of the vision in the eye and that his condition was improving.

The former cricket star turned politician has been in prison since 2023 after being convicted in a graft case. He was removed from office in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022. He has alleged that his ouster was the result of a U.S.-backed conspiracy involving political rivals and Pakistan’s former army chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa — allegations denied by Washington, Pakistan’s military and his political opponents.

Despite his legal troubles, Khan remains a central figure in Pakistani politics and retains a large following.

FILE - Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan gives a press conference at his home, in Lahore, Pakistan, on May 18, 2023. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary, File)

People walk past Shifa International Hospital, where imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan will be transferred for a medical examination following Pakistan's Supreme Court order, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian court ruled Tuesday that one of three serial killers convicted over the murders of 11 people in one of the country's most notorious criminal cases can be released from prison, rejecting a state government's bid to block his parole.

The victims were killed over seven years, and most of their bodies were found in 1999 in barrels of acid in Snowtown, a small town north of the South Australia state capital, Adelaide. The discovery led the crimes to become known as the “Bodies-in-Barrels” murders.

Three judges of the South Australia Court of Appeal upheld a parole board decision made last month to release the youngest of the three convicted murderers, James Vlassakis.

Vlassakis, now 46, was 18 when his crimes began in 1998. He pleaded guilty to four murders, including those of a half brother and stepbrother. He became a star witness for the prosecution, and was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 26 years, which expired in August of last year.

He was granted parole in December but the state government succeeded in overturning that parole board decision.

The discovery of dismembered bodies in a derelict Snowtown bank branch and a yearlong trial that ended in 2003 captured the nation's attention at the time, inspiring books and the 2011 movie “Snowtown.”

Parole board chair Frances Nelson argued Vlassakis had “always been remorseful and contrite.” He had not been diagnosed with any anti-social personality disorder and his prison behavior has been “excellent,” she said.

South Australia Attorney-General Kyam Maher, who had unsuccessfully challenged the parole decision, instead argued that the traumatic nature of the crimes justified keeping Vlassakis behind bars.

“The gravity and the effect this has had on South Australia (and) the need for community safety were always the primary concerns of the state government,” Maher told reporters.

“This is definitely indelibly marked on the psyche of South Australia. These were horrific crimes that were committed against innocent people. Families of victims, friends and whole communities were deeply affected by this,” Maher said.

Nelson told reporters the parole board “would not have recommended his release on parole if we thought he was a risk.”

"So for the attorney general to say that he presented a risk, I think, caused unnecessary alarm in the community,” Nelson said.

Vlassakis was the stepson of the killers’ ringleader, John Bunting. Bunting killed people he suspected of being pedophiles or gay. He ordered some killed because he disliked overweight people and drug users. Victims’ social security payments were stolen.

Bunting was convicted of 11 murders and his neighbor, Robert Wagner, was convicted of 10. Both had been active in neo-Nazi groups. Charges of a 12th murder were dropped because of a lack of evidence. Both were sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Another accomplice, Mark Haydon, who pleaded guilty to helping dispose of two bodies, was released from prison in 2024 after serving a 25-year sentence. A jury had failed to reach verdicts on two murder charges against him.

The former bank building where dismembered bodies were stored in barrels is photographed in Snowtown, Australia, on Oct. 22, 2002. (Rob Hutchison/AAP Image via AP)