my problem is:

traumatised by the mobbing, I already quit, and am already looking for another institution, but HOW do you I explain to the next employer what happens? Or do I just skip mentioning anything from last year and say that I was working or something? Will anyone hire someone who quit her phd in december 2012 to finish it? or even without any scholarship?

in the country where this happened as a phd student you are an employee of the university, but Mathcomp you make a very good point, the contract they offered me mentioned nowhere that it was to conclude the phd, it was a general contract as a "researcher" (and I did everything but). They said they had to do like that because of administration, but in fact they conned me, I was naive.

So yes, they were a university and they were also my employers.

Well, it has been quite a disaster and I don't see how to get over this, maybe you have some good advice to give me. Years ago I got a scholarship for a PhD project, it was going ok but there were major troubles with the supervisor (five other people left before myself) and around the third year I quit too. I had a lot of pretty decent material so I started looking for another way to finish it, but I didn't want to move country, so refused three offers that came my way and I accepted one close to where I was living. They offered me a "deal": finish the phd in one year, part time, and the other 50% of the time to work on their design projects (underpaid). (I am a designer)
What happened in fact was that I worked for 5 months only on their projects, and when finally I refused to work anymore until they let me work on the phd, they gave me impossible deadlines and proceeded to push me to quit with methods that different lawyers have qualified as mobbing. I got a nervous breakdown, quit, and now since 3 months I am taking a break.
Now, this story is so ugly that I feel ashamed telling it even on this website anonymously, and I know very well how bad it looks, especially because I quit the previous PhD,
Before this terrible adventure I published 5 papers in a year (and I was publishing before starting the PhD), I still have some good reputation left in the academic world and usually I get good feedback for my work.
Those people conned me and destroyed my life for no reason (well, to save money).
Do you think I can still look for ways to finish, or is my PhD trajectory forever over? How do I explain to potential employers what happened to me without sounding like some sneaky all-blaming loser? They say not to talk bad about your previous employers, but how do I explain why am I still here?