Beleaguered media baron Conrad Black has taken self-delusion to a new level.

Not only is he innocent of plundering millions of dollars from his Hollinger newspaper empire. He reckons he is also a freedom fighter!

"I have settled into my new life as a freedom fighter. It's very interesting and it's quite stimulating, in a way, but it is an ordeal," he says in this interview.

Conrad Black, due to go on trial in March next year, will be swearing his innocence in an interview set to air on Canada's TVO television channel on Monday night. As Black puts it, the prosecutors have persecuted him, an innocent, law-abiding citizen:

"The chances of my committing a crime are less than zero and it is a horrible nightmare scenario for someone who is a law-abiding person ... to be attacked as violently as I have, not only with these charges but with the ancillary efforts to restrict my ability to defend myself."

That doesn't quite measure up to the latest filings from US prosecutors.





According to their filings, lawyers and accountants KPMG claim they were fooled by sham agreements designed to pump money into the pockets of Black and other former Hollinger executives.

Meanwhile, Black is refusing to hand over as collateral the $2.9 million ring he gave to his wife Barbara Amiel, reports the Toronto Star.

His lawyers reckon the 26-carat ring belongs to his wife, and she's not a defendant.

Yeah, freedom fighters do have some entitlements.