LA Times: Alleged victim of gang rape sentenced to one year in prison

"The Criminal Court of Abu Dhabi, in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, ruled this week that an 18-year-old Emirati woman who accused six men of gang-raping her will herself serve a one-year sentence for consensual sex.

It's one of in the latest in a scourge of reported rape cases in Dubai, The court proceedings were marred by legal travesties, experts say.

While the plaintiff was not granted a lawyer, the defendants were. Moreover, the plaintiff could not have any family members present with her during the trial, the court decided. The prosecution also argued that simply because the plaintiff agreed to enter the police officer's car, this action somehow constituted partial consent to sex, The National reported.

Emirati authorities had kept the plaintiff imprisoned since she made the allegations last month.

Meanwhile, the accused rapists mostly got off lightly. A police officer will serve one year in prison for extramarital sex and two of the other defendants were sentenced to three months for being in the company of a woman not related to them by blood."

More here: DUBAI: Alleged victim of gang rape sentenced to one year in prison (LA times blog)

Information needed abt employment contracts

Sorry if this sounds a bit stupid, but I'd like to be clear on the legality of things, if anyone has an answer.

Say you signed a contract with someone, wherein you're the employee, and the contract states X amount of salary. Employer one day says he/she has no more money with which to pay you. You still help out as you have personal reasons for doing so, but with no monetary compensation. Under these circumstances, is the person still legally your employer? Can the employee look for and take up another job, should he/she find one?

"US developer in $1bn Dubai property test case"

"A US real estate developer is suing a quasi-governmental Dubai firm for $1bn in damages, claiming its investment in a project in the emirate’s property boom was unjustly cancelled amid a contractual dispute.

The developer, Capital Partners, had in July 2005 made what was planned to be one of the largest foreign investments in the region’s business hub, when it announced plans for River Walk, a mixed-use $1bn project in the busy internet business park located on prime land near the trunk of the reclaimed Palm Island."
[...]
The dispute revolves around the existence of a protected archaeological site owned by the emirate’s tourism department within the 1.7m sq ft plot. In October 2005, Capital Partners says it refused to make a second scheduled payment as its partner, Dubai’s Technology, Electronic Commerce & Media Free Zone, or Tecom, had illegally sold it land that belonged to another government entity.

“Tecom misrepresented what they own,” said Jonathan Wride, managing director of Capital Partners. “I am very confident we will receive a judgment in our favour.” Capital Partners, which filed in August, hopes to receive a result in the summer.

Tecom, however, says it had every right to cancel the contract because of the non-payment. The media and internet business cluster owned by the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, claims the archaeological site was never brought up by the US investors before they failed to meet the tight payment schedules. Tecom, in any case, owned the archaeological site, an official said.

--more over there