Former media tycoon Conrad Black has been granted bail by a U.S. appeals court, pending his appeal on fraud charges, The Associated Press reported late this afternoon.

Last month, the court narrowed the scope of a federal fraud law that states a crime is committed when one "deprive[s] another of the intangible right of honest services," because it is too broad in its scope and too vague to constitute a crime unless a bribe or kickback is involved, the Chicago Tribune reported at the time. The former head of the Hollinger International media company, which controlled some of the most influential newspapers in the world, was convicted in 2007 of one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of fraud. Along with former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling, Black appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court. The non-fraud convictions on both men still stand.

Image via Reuters: Black faces the press in Chicago in 2007.

The terms of Black's bail conditions will be set by the U.S. District Court judge in Chicago who presided over his 2007 trial, according to the National Post. He began serving his sentence of 78 months in prison in March 2008 at Florida's Coleman Federal Correctional Complex.

Exactly when Black might be released is still not known. In order to win bail, his lawyers had to prove his appeal raised "a substantial question of law," the Globe and Mail reported. Black was not convicted of taking a bribe or kickback, which means that according to the court's ruling last month, he was wrongly convicted of "honest services fraud."

Last week, Black said he is "entitled" to be released on bail because the fraud convictions are now in question, which could cause his time behind bars to be longer than his final sentence, Postmedia News reported in an article posted by the Montreal Gazette.

Black once had a fortune estimated at £136 million, and owned more than 200 newspapers at the height of his career, including the Jerusalem Post, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Telegraph titles in Britain.