Court grants $1.31M bail to Schreiber

The Ontario Court of Appeal has agreed to release German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber on bail of $1.31 million, a representative of his lawyer says.

Schreiber will remain in custody while paperwork is completed, which may be done by the end of Tuesday.

The bail conditions include:

• He can travel outside Ontario for no more than 14 days.
• He must not be in possession of or apply for any passport or travel documents.

The decision was made at a hearing Tuesday in Toronto. Among those posting bail were Schreiber, his wife Barbel and former federal Liberal cabinet minister Marc Lalonde.

Schreiberhas been fighting extradition to Germany — where hefaces charges of fraud, tax evasion and bribery — for the past eight years.

The businessman is at the centre of a probe over his dealings with former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

Schreiber began to speak before an ethics committee at Parliament Hill Tuesday in a much anticipated appearance.

He had promised to deliver revelations that would be "like Christmas" for its members and handed over a thick binder he said contained all his correspondence with the former prime minister.

Committee chair Liberal MP Paul Szabo thanked Schreiber for providing the documents.

"It's a wonderful Christmas gift to us and I can only give you a small Christmas gift back. I've just been advised that you have received bail," said Szabo. "So you'll be sleeping in your own bed, hopefully tonight."

Schreiber thanked the committee chair for the news and said he was looking forward to returning home to his wife.

The committee is looking into $300,000 in cash Mulroney accepted from Schreiber after he left office in 1993.

It's also reviewing Mulroney's $2.1-million settlement from the federal government in 1997 over his libel suit regarding the so-called Airbus affair — in which millions of dollars in secret commissions were paid in the sale of jets to Air Canada.

Last week, during his first appearance before the committee, Schreiber offered some details about his relationship with Mulroney. He said Mulroney was only paid $300,000 of a $500,000 business deal because the former prime minister did not hold up his end of the bargain.