Former Hollinger International CEO Conrad Black is applying for bail pending the outcome of his U.S. Supreme Court appeal, a move that's being opposed by prosecutors.

Black's application comes the same day former Hollinger International Inc. executive John Boultbee was granted bail by a judge in Chicago.

Lawyers for Black, who is serving a 6½-year term in a Florida prison, noted that prosecutors agreed to Boultbee's bail and should do the same for their client.

"By the time this court decides his appeal, Mr. Black will be nearly 66 years old and — without the appeal bail that he requests — will have been imprisoned for more than two years," Black's lawyer Miguel Estrada wrote in a submission to the court.

"He understands that if he is released on bail and does not prevail in his appeal, the completion of his sentence will have been delayed by several months. He is willing to take the chance of prolonging his punishment, though, because if he does prevail then the time he will have spent in prison between now and such a ruling can never be returned to him."

Boultbee was convicted of fraud in 2007, along with Black and company executives Peter Atkinson and Mark Kipnis. He was sentenced to 27 months in jail and has been in a California prison since last July.

Prosecutors said Judge Amy St. Eve, who presided over the original trial, granted a motion to release Boultbee on $500,000 US bail until the Supreme Court renders a decision.

Atkinson, who is serving a two-year sentence, did not take part in the appeal. Kipnis served six months of house arrest, but joined the petition to have his conviction overturned.

The Supreme Court agreed on May 18 to hear the appeals.

Ruling expected in 2010

Earlier, Black's lawyer, Miguel Estrada, said he expects the appeals will be heard in November or December and a ruling to be issued by June 2010.

Boultbee's lawyer, Richard Greenberg, said, "I'm grateful for the courts and the governments co-operating in releasing Mr. Boultbee, because, in the event he wins in the Supreme Court, he would have served his sentence otherwise and the victory would have been pyrrhic."

It's not known when Boultbee will be set free, because the release must be sorted out by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Homeland Security.

In this Dec. 10, 2007, file photo, convicted newspaper baron Conrad Black leaves the federal building in Chicago. (Jerry Lai/Associated Press)A jury determined that Black and the others had committed fraud when they diverted millions of dollars in non-compete payments from the sale of Hollinger newspapers. Black was also found guilty of one count of obstruction of justice for removing boxes of documents from his Toronto office.

Black's lawyers argue the men did not commit fraud because they did no harm to the company. The lawyers also allege that the prosecutor defined the word "fraud" in a way that is very different from the criminal definition.

Earlier appeals were rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, leaving the Supreme Court as their last chance.

Hollinger International once owned the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Telegraph of London, the Jerusalem Post and hundreds of community newspapers across the United States and Canada.