Former Khmer-Rouge Social Action Minister Ieng Thirith remains in her cell at the tribunal’s detention centre and continues to receive the same medical treatment, despite the Supreme Court Chamber ordering a change in treatment last week.

Last week, the Supreme Court Chamber, the tribunal’s highest appeal chamber, overruled a decision of the Trial Chamber in November to “unconditionally release” the one-time Shakespeare scholar, who stands accused of genocide and crimes against humanity.

“My client remains at the detention cell and continues to receive daily medical check-ups from the ECCC doctor because it is the expense of the ECCC to cover her treatment,” Ieng Thirith’s lawyer Phat Pouv Seang told the Post yesterday.

Her health remains temperamental, Phat Pouv Seang said.  “Her health recently is like an old person,” he said of the 79-year-old woman. “Sometimes sick, sometimes not really well and sometimes okay.”

The Supreme Court Chamber ordered that the Trial Chamber must “exhaust all available measures potentially capable of helping the Accused to become fit to stand trial”, which included the use of a drug that has a one in three chance of improving her condition.

Earlier this year medical experts found Ieng Thirith suffered from a dementing illness – most likely Alzheimer’s.

The Supreme Court Chamber has ordered medical treatment to improve her condition so she can be assessed in another six months to see if she is able to stand trial for crimes committed during the murderous Khmer Rouge regime.