A judge has ordered that Frank Ostrowski be released on bail.

"The Crown says new evidence is not of such significance to meet the standard for release in this case," Justice Colleen Suche said. "I understand the Crown's logic... In the end I am not persuaded this is the appropriate course of action... If innocent, the years taken from him can never be restored."

Suche ordered Ostrowski released on $5,000 bail and a surety of $25,000.

Ostrowski spent 23 years in jail after he was convicted of murder.

He has long fought for his release and insisted he was wrongfully convicted of killing Robert Nieman throughout his entire jail term.

Ostrowski's lawyers had said the evidence suggesting their client was wrongfully convicted is "overwhelming" and he deserved an immediate release before a federal review of his case reaches the same conclusion.

Ostrowski, a former hairdresser-turned cocaine kingpin, was one of three men sentenced to life in prison for killing Nieman, a small-time drug dealer. The Crown alleged Ostrowski ordered the killing, believing Nieman was a police informant.

But Ostrowski's lawyers argue Crown witness Matthew Lovelace -- Ostrowski's coke-dealing partner -- brokered a deal to testify against Ostrowski in exchange for the Crown dropping drug charges against him. Lockyer cited a 1986 Crown memo in which a prosecutor wrote how Lovelace's cocaine trafficking charges would be withdrawn if he "comes through with the goodies."