Conrad Black back to jail, wife collapses

The Toronto Star:

Chicago — At the front of the court, Conrad Black stood stoically as a judge ruled his debt to America is not yet fully paid. The former press baron barely flinched at being ordered back to prison.

And at that very moment, just a few metres away, unbeknownst to Black, his wife Barbara Amiel lay prostrate, silently collapsing upon hearing U.S. Federal Court Judge Amy St. Eve utter the only words that mattered — “forty-two months.”

Court attendants rushed to Amiel’s aid, but so quietly — and at such a climactic moment— that almost nobody noticed, least of all Black.

For a five anguished minutes, as Black listened with laser focus to the terms of his renewed incarceration, Amiel was horizontal on the hard wooden court bench. When Black finally cast a glance back, his brow furled with sudden worry.

Continue reading here.