Conrad Black arrives in Toronto after release from prison

Former media baron Conrad Black was greeted by two dogs at his posh Toronto home and then walked briefly among the flowering trees with his wife, Barbara Amiel Black.

The two kissed before entering the imposing house. One of the dogs remained on the grounds, rushing over to the fence to bark at the assembled journalists.

Black, convicted for fraud and obstruction of justice, was released from a Florida prison Friday and reportedly taken straight to the airport by U.S. immigration officials.

He was picked up at the low-security Federal Correctional Institution near Miami by U.S. immigration officials around 8:30 a.m. Placed in a vehicle with tinted windows, his face wasn't visible to any cameras.

An immigration detainer had been placed on the former head of Hollinger International. It was expected that he was going to be driven to a detention centre and booked for deportation. But it appears Black was driven straight to the Miami International Airport. A worker with the Krome Detention Center told reporters he was scheduled to take a charter flight, though immigration officials did not confirm that Black was taken to the airport.

Prison and immigration officials revealed few other details, citing privacy laws and security policies.

Black had been housed at the Federal Correctional Institution near Miami since September.

The former media baron had served the first part of his 42-month sentence in another, more remote, Florida prison. But after he exhausted his appeals and was ordered back behind bars last year to complete his sentence, Black was sent to the Miami-area prison instead because two female prison workers at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex contended they feared for their safety, he told reporters last fall.

The women - a prison unit manager and an education specialist - had in affidavits suggested that Black wasn't a model prisoner in Coleman, saying he asked for special treatment from staff and had inmates cook, clean and iron clothes for him "like servants." His lawyers refuted their claims.

It was believed Black wanted to return to Canada, even though he gave up his citizenship more than a decade ago to obtain a British peerage. The Canadian Department of Citizenship and Immigration has granted him a one-year temporary resident permit, valid until early May, 2013.

Black and his wife own a house in Toronto's exclusive Bridle Path neighbourhood. Many of Black's friends in Canada were eagerly awaiting his return.

While prison time is now behind him, Black still faces serious troubles that could leave him emotionally and financially depleted, including an ailing wife and a $70-million bill from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.