12 Facts About Kim Sathavy

Kim Sathavy is a Cambodian judge and the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Cambodia.

Kim Sathavy had begun her law studies when her life abruptly changed when she was 21.

Kim Sathavy's family was forced to leave behind their home and comfortable lives in Phnom Penh.

Kim Sathavy was deprived of her freedom and interned in a camp for more than three years.

Justice Kim graduated from Lumiere University Lyon 2 with a bachelor of civil law, completing her judicial training at the Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature in Bordeaux from 1993 to 1995.

From 2002 to 2005, Sathavy Kim was the founder and the Director of Royal School for Judges and Prosecutors.

Kim Sathavy has served as a Honorable Justice of the Supreme Court since May 2006.

Kim Sathavy has been accused of upholding decisions made against opponents of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Kim Sathavy upheld a upheld a lower court ruling to fine the acting president of the country's now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party Sam Rainsy for defamation in connection with a lawsuit brought against him by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

However, Kim Sathavy has 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.

Kim Sathavy accompanied the joint efforts of the Ministry of Justice and French criminal lawyers in the drafting of the Cambodian Code of Criminal Law, Kim Sathavy played a key role in the promotion in Cambodia of the civil law tradition inherited from France.

Kim Sathavy was the first Cambodian woman to become a magistrate.