Updated 12.30pm with longer video

Joseph Muscat’s alleged role in a massive fraud that stole millions from Maltese pockets mattered little to the throngs of people who gathered outside the law courts in his support on Tuesday morning.

“He’s one of the greatest people in Malta,” one demonstrator told Times of Malta. “I think he’s innocent, and even if he isn’t…. he lifted me up off the ground. I used to get a €570 pension, now I make over €900.”

That sentiment was reflected in comments others gave Times of Malta.

“He filled Malta with money,” one said. “He made us decent,” another said. “When he came to power, we started living.”

Demonstrators filled Republic Square from 9am, well before Muscat and others were scheduled to be arraigned in court and charged with bribery, corruption, money laundering and other crimes.

The former prime minister is among 14 people to face criminal charges on Tuesday in connection with the €4 billion, 30-year deal the Muscat government signed to privatise state hospitals.

That deal was annulled by a civil court and panned by the National Audit Office, which drafted three separate reports about it. It was also flagged as a suspected criminal enterprise by experts engaged as part of a magisterial probe, which was concluded last month.

Investigators found that money provided by Maltese taxes to run three state hospitals was moved through a convulted network of companies by professionals engaged by the deal’s key players. The misappropriation amounted to millions of euro.

Muscat has denied any involvement and said the case is based on conjecture.

All that mattered little to the people gathered in Republic Square on Tuesday morning.

“This is a repetition of Christ’s story,” one man said, drawing parallels between Muscat’s prosecution and the persecution of Jesus Christ.

The crowd – mostly older and largely male – chanted “Joseph, Joseph” as they waited for the former prime minister to show up.

A Times of Malta reporter only spotted a handful of young people in the crowd, and none of them wanted to speak on camera. Most women asked to comment also declined to do so, or were stopped from doing so by their partner or friends.

“When I emailed him at 1am, he replied the next day,” a man said when asked why he was there. “I think he’s to be taken more seriously than the courts. He’s a just man.”

Labour Party officials have confided that they worry tempers could flare within the crowd.

And there were slight signs of that as a Times of Malta reporter milled through the crowd, seeking people willing to talk about their presence there.

“Are you a prophet?” one man barked as the reporter asked a demonstrator if he thought Muscat was innocent.

“We’re here for Joseph, not to promote you,” a woman told journalists.

Another grabbed the reporter’s arm, but was quickly escorted away and told off by other demonstrators. “He’s just doing his job,” another told the angry crowd circling the reporter.

But while the crowds were keen to publicly back Muscat, in private some acknowledged they had concerns.

“Police never take you to court for nothing,” one confided off-camera. “But I’m a Mintoffjan, I had to come today.”  

The crowds were also less willing to back Muscat’s lieutenants Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, who will also appear in court to face charges on Tuesday.

“I can only speak about Joseph,” many said when asked if they believed Schembri and Mizzi were being framed, too.

And one made it clear he was not just there because of the hospitals scandal. The Nationalist Party, he said, was the cause of many of Malta's current ills. 

"Traffic is all down to them [PN]," he said. "They didn't build a single road during their time in power, so now the government has to redo them all at once."

What about the increase in cars on Maltese roads? 

"Well obviously cars would increase, because before everyone went hungry and now there's work. Labour brought employment so people need to buy cars," he reasoned.

Follow Tuesday's events with our live blog.