Lapsed-Canadian “relaxed” but defiant ahead of jail-house return
Former media baron Conrad Black is “pretty relaxed” about returning to prison but he continues to insist he never broke the law. Black was convicted of obstruction of justice and fraud in 2007. He served 29 months of a more than six-year sentence before being released on appeal last year. He is scheduled to return to prison September 6 to complete the remaining 13 months of a reduced term. In an interview with CBC taped in early August, Black said he can see the end of his ordeal “looming larger every day.” He called prison life “Spartan,” but said it isn’t “physically dangerous.” Black gave the interview to promote an upcoming memoir, which will be released September 15. The main point of the book, he said, was to “to assault, in as violent and persuasive a manner as possible, this absolute fraud that I would ever, or did, break the law.”