PRO-smoking activists are to stage a protest calling for the release from jail of rebel pub landlord, Nick Hogan.

The former boss of The Swan and Barristers in Bradshawgate, Bolton, was jailed for six months last week for non-payment of fines imposed when he broke smoking ban laws.

More than 500 people have now joined a Facebook group calling for his release.

And Phil Johnson, a leading liberty campaigner, has written to the Prime Minister asking for the prison sentence to be rescinded.

Mr Johnson, who is the chairman of the website, Freedom2choose.info, has contacted Gordon Brown with a request that Hogan is released from prison immediately.

He said: “This is an abomination of justice.

“He was standing up for the rights and dignity of his customers and was protecting his own business and catering for his customers’ needs.

“Since the smoking ban was brought in 5,000 pubs and clubs have closed, that is not down to bad management,” said Mr Johnson.

Hogan was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £7,136 in costs when he was found guilty of breaching the smoking ban in January, 2008.

He appealed the conviction but lost, and an extra £1,000 was added to the costs.

On Friday he appeared before magistrates in Bolton and was sent to prison for non-payment.

Now hundreds of people have come out in support of Hogan, and are calling for him to be released.

They plan to protest outside Forest Bank prison in Salford on Saturday, March 13, at noon.

Mr Johnson said: “Nick Hogan had the courage to stand up and be counted and he has been made a martyr by the stupid legal system.

“Smokers and licensees are being used as a cash cow by the government.

“The more people that support him the better because the law needs to be changed.

“Already many European countries have imposed similar bans and have had to relax or remove them because they realise the financial damage they are causing.”