Kim Sathavy

Kim Sathavy has been accused of upholding decisions made against opponents of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. While she was being accused of “make a ruling based on professionalism and not be politically influenced,” she dismissed this statement by reminding the court that the hearing was not about the facts of the case, but about the defendant's reasons for demanding bail. Kim Sathavy also upheld a upheld a lower court ruling to fine the acting president of the country's now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) Sam Rainsy for defamation in connection with a lawsuit brought against him by Prime Minister Hun Sen. However, Kim Sathavy has also taken decisions clearing opposing policies of the executive branch, for example ruling that there were flaws in the trial of Rath Rott Mony in June 2019 and ordered the Appeal Court to conduct another trial to relitigate the case. Seeking to protect the independence of the judiciary of Cambodia, she has resisted not only local but international pressure, as in cases of extradition.

On November 10, 2015, Jean-Claude Poimboeuf, Ambassador of France to Cambodia, presented the insignia of Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur to Mrs. Kim Sathavy, judge at the Supreme Court of Cambodia.

From 2002 to 2005, Sathavy Kim was the founder and the Director of Royal School for Judges and Prosecutors. She has served as a Honorable Justice of the Supreme Court since May 2006.

In 1998, she returned to the place where the labour camp once stood where she had once been held captive. From 1999 to 2002, she was a legal advisor to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sar Kheng.

Sathavy Kim resumed her legal studies in 1993. Justice Kim graduated from Lumière University Lyon 2 with a bachelor of civil law, completing her judicial training at the Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature in Bordeaux (France) from 1993 to 1995. From 1995 to 1997, she was appointed as advisor to Minister of Justice in charge of training judges and prosecutors. From 1997 to 1998, she was a visiting scholar at University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor.

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, she was appointed as a judge of Siem Reap Provincial Court in 1982 and the vice-president of the Siem Reap Provincial Court from 1986 to 1993.

Kim Sathavy (Khmer: គិម សត្ថាវី; born 1954) is a Cambodian judge and the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Cambodia.

Sathavy Kim was born in Cambodia in 1954. She had begun her law studies when her life abruptly changed when she was 21. Her family was forced to leave behind their home and comfortable lives in Phnom Penh. She was deprived of her freedom and interned in a camp for more than three years.