US President Barack Obama announced May 31 that prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl had been released into US custody in exchange for five detainees held at Guantánamo Bay. Bergdahl was the only confirmed US prisoner of war from the conflict in Afghanistan remaining in enemy custody. The Obama administration brokered the deal for Bergdahl's exchange through the Qatari government; once Bergdahl was secured, five high-profile Guantánamo Bay detainees, including the former head of the Taliban army, were transferred to Qatar. Republicans in the US Senate and House of Representatives criticized the exchange, which had been conducted in violation of a law requiring the president to notify Congress 30 days before any detainees are transferred from Guantanamo bay (PDF). The Obama administration maintains that the provision of the law requiring the notification is an unconstitutional violation on his rights as Commander-in-Chief (signing statement, PDF).

Amnesty International (AI) on May 31 urged Iran not to execute a political dissident convicted of "enmity against God." Gholamreza Khosravi Savajani was sentenced to death in 2010 on the charge of "enmity against God" for his alleged links with a banned opposition group, the People's Mojahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI). Family members of Gholamreza Khosravi fear that he may be executed as soon as June 1, after they were informed by prison officials that they must go to the prison in order to meet him outside of regular visitation hours. Khosravi is currently being held in solitary confinement, which according to AI, is in conformity with Iran's practice of placing prisoners in solitary units before their executions take place. "Yet again Iranian authorities are about to execute a man who did not even receive a fair trial in total disregard of both international and Iranian Law," said AI's deputy director for the Middle East, Hassiba Hadj Saharoui. Under the new Islamic Penal Code, the charge of "enmity against God" imposes the death penalty only for those who have actively taken up arms.

A Chilean court on May 30 said that it has completed the 10-year investigation into the origin of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's fortune and his suspected embezzlement of public funds. In an unanimous decision, an an appeals court in Santiago closed the investigation, allowing Judge Manuel Valderrama to formally accuse former military members who collaborated with Pinochet in the "Riggs Bank case." Pinochet was charged in 2005 with tax evasion in connection with the millions of dollars he held in foreign bank accounts, which was discovered after the US Senate's investigation into banking irregularities at the now-defunct Riggs Bank. Last year, a court decided not to charge any of Pinochet's family members, but did charge six former military officers for the suspected embezzlement of public funds. An audit done by the Universidad de Chile's Business and Economic faculty in 2010 estimated that Pinochet accumulated $21 million before his death, of which more than $17 million was of unknown origin.

A Cambodian court on May 30 convicted 23 workers and activists for inciting violence during a mass garment workers' strike but suspended their jail sentence, which had caused much controversy and international scrutiny. The ruling reverses the February decision of an appeals court, which refused the release of the workers and activists facing criminal charges. It has been reported that international brands such as H&M, Puma and the Gap have threatened to pull out of Cambodia if efforts are not made to prevent further human rights violations, fearing a "public relations problem." Dave Welsh, a representative of the US-based labor group Solidarity Center, stated in regard to the ruling: "The main thing is there's just an enormous amount of relief—first of all with them, with their families, and with the trade union and human rights community in general—that they are going to be freed."

Chinese officials in the western region of Xinjiang on May 27 held a public rally at a sports stadium for the mass sentencing of criminals, in which 55 individuals were sentenced before a crowd of 7,000 people. While three received death sentences for crimes including "violent terrorism," other prisoners' crimes ranged from "separatism" to "membership in terror groups." Rights groups such as Human Rights Watch have accused China's policies of being discriminatory against Uighurs, Muslims who speak a Turkic language. All individuals named at the sentencing rally [in the city of Yining, Yili prefecture] have Uighur names. This public stand against terrorism and extremism appears to be a response to the recent attacks in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi.

Authorities in Ecuador on May 27 announced, via Twitter, the issuance of an arrest warrant for former president Jamil Mahuad on the grounds that he allegedly misappropriated public funds during the late 1990s. Interior Minister Jose Serrano stated that a "red notice" had been issued by Interpol. Authorities sought a red notice against Mahuad in 2012, but their request was denied. The former president has been on trial in absentia for 13 years, but the trial has now halted in Mahuad's absence. The former president fled the country during a coup and was last known to be teaching in the US.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled (PDF) May 21 that the case against Muammar Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Qaddafi may proceed in the ICC and that Libyan authorities must immediately surrender Saif al-Islam to The Hague. Saif al-Islam is being tried on multiple crimes against humanity associated with the 2011 revolt in his home country. A majority of the ICC Appeals Chamber, with one dissenting opinion, rejected all four grounds of appeal brought by the Libyan government, concluding that it had not been effectively demonstrated that the domestic investigation in Libya would cover the same case that would be presented before the ICC. Judge Erkki Kourula stated that "the Appeals Chamber did not err in either fact or law when it concluded that Libya had fallen short of substantiating, by means of evidence of a sufficient degree of specificity and probative value, that Libya's investigation covers the same case that is before the Court." The Libyan government also presented arguments that the Pre-Trial Chamber had committed procedural errors when reaching its decision, to which the Appeals Chamber confirmed the Pre-Trial Chamber's decision. The judgment affirmed the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I decision (PDF) in May 2013 to allow Saif al-Islam to be tried in the ICC, which Libya subsequently appealed in June.

The Congress of the Republic of Guatemala on May 13 approved a non-binding resolution denying any existence of genocide during the civil war lasting from 1960-1996. The resolution calls for national reconciliation and states: "It is legally impossible...that genocide could have occurred in our country's territory during the armed conflict." The Movement of Victims of Northern Quiche allege that more than 250,000 people were killed during the civil war, predominately Mayan indigenous people. Guatemala's Congress approved the measure with 87 of the 158 members voting in favor, after the secretary general Luis Fernando Pérez proposed the resolution. Pérez is a legislator for the party founded by ex-dictator Efrain Rios Montt, who was convicted of genocide in May 2013.