Black seeks release before appeal

Black has served 15 months of a six-and-a-half year term

The former media mogul Conrad Black has appealed to a Chicago federal judge to release him ahead of a Supreme Court appeal against his fraud conviction.

The Supreme Court agreed in May to hear the challenge, but refused to grant him bail ahead of the hearing.

His bail request has gone to US District Judge Amy St Eve, who presided over his trial. She has scheduled a hearing for 10 July.

His papers said there was a "substantial question" about his guilt.

Black was jailed for six-and-a-half years for fraud and obstruction of justice in 2007.

He argues that he did not commit fraud because he did no harm to newspaper company Hollinger International, which once owned the Daily Telegraph.

Once one of the UK's wealthiest and most influential media figures, he became a British lord in 2000 after giving up his Canadian citizenship.

Black is currently being held in the Florida Coleman Federal Correctional Facility.