YANGOON: The political party of Myanmar’s detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has heard that the

military regime could set her free in November, a spokesman said today.

The Nobel peace laureate has been kept in detention for 14 of the past 20 years, and in August she was ordered to spend another 18 months in detention after being convicted over an incident in which a US man swam to her house.

According to media reports and local residents, Home Affairs Minister Maung Oo told a meeting of local officials in central Myanmar four days ago

that her release would

come in November.

“We also heard about it. But it’s difficult to confirm,” Nyan Win, her lawyer and a spokesman for her National League for Democracy party told AFP. “If we calculate the period, Daw Suu’s house arrest will be completed in November,” he said.

A local resident in the town of Kyaukpadaung, where the meeting was

held, said he had heard

the same date from witnesses of the speech.