The son of the late Paceville mogul Hugo Chectuci has lashed out against presenter and activist Peppi Azzopardi over a Facebook post the latter uploaded on Sunday.

Azzopardi, a frequent critic of the prison system and solitary confinement, said the prison leadership was denying four prisoners their request to file police statements about things they witnessed at the Corradino Correctional Facility. He said the prison authorities were trying to silence these four prisoners from speaking out against abuses.

There are currently four prisoners in solitary confinement, including Bojan Cmelik, who stands accused of murdering Hugo Chetcuti in 2018.

His son Luke, now CEO of Hugo’s Group, took aim at Azzopardi, saying that his father had been put in an “indefinite state of solitary confinement” by his murderer.

“Dear Peppi, I write this with absolute disgust. How can you even try and protect these murderers?” he asked in a post on Instagram.

“Does my father have any right to anything from 6 feet below the ground? Can he eat again? Can he smile again? Can my children spend time with their grandfather again? Can he enjoy anything in this world? My father was minding his own business with his friends and family, happy to open a new concept and this piece of s**t walked up to him pretending he wanted to hug him knowing how friendly and humble my dad was, only to stab him with a 16cm blade. As a consequence, my father died a horrible death and has no right to anything in this world anymore.”

When something like this happens to a family it leaves you scarred for life. My son was only 7 years old, and I have to remember the terrorised frightened look on his little face when I had to tell him that his grandfather was dead. My little daughter was only 3 when my father was taken, so she will hardly have any memories of her beloved grandfather.”

“Did you ever have any consideration for the after-effects on my children’s lives, knowing that their grandfather was murdered?”

Chetcuti said life will never be the same for his family. “Every birthday, every Christmas, every family celebration is marred by his absence. We miss him.”

“When I visit my dad at his grave he can’t speak to me or anyone else because he is in an  indefinite solitary confinement state due to death through murder at the hands of one of the prisoners you so nobly defend. My last memories of my dad are of watching a medic jumping on him desperately trying to bring him back to life.”

“Perhaps if it was your dad laying cold in his grave you would think differently. Missek tisthi (shame on you), Peppi.”

He also uploaded a photo of his father’s grave, with the caption, “this is the closest I can be to my dad till my time is up.”

In his Facebook post, Azzopardi said he had sent the names of the four prisoners who were being silenced to the Police Commissioner for an investigation into the matter.

He said the prison director, Colonel Alexander Dalli, is being investigated by the police. But the investigation was a “tragic farce”, he said, because prisoners who had information about the prison boss were not being allowed to speak out.

He also addressed the Home Affairs minister, asking how he could keep Dalli in the post while being under investigation.