Suu Kyi was originally supposed to be released last year, but a bizarre case involving an American who swam across a lake to her home, claiming he was on a mission to save her, prompted military authorities to extend her detention by another 18 months, the BBC reported.
"The authorities will release her. It is certain," an unnamed government official told Agence France-Presse.
Suu Kyi's release is something international aid groups and democracy advocates have been demanding for years. President Barack Obama called for her freedom during his current trip to Asia, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a similar call before Sunday's elections.
Amnesty International's Myanmar specialist, Benjamin Zawacki, told CNN that it makes "perfect sense" for the regime to free her now that elections are over and she's "no longer an electoral threat to them." But he said he believes Myanmar's military rulers will not release her unconditionally.
Sponsored Links One demand that the country's military rulers might make is for Suu Kyi to stay out of politics altogether -- something her supporters say is out of the question.
"She has made it categorically clear that she will not accept conditions; that she will not walk out of the house with conditions," Maung Zarni, a research fellow on Myanmar at the London School of Economics, told CNN.
If and when she is freed, one of the first things Suu Kyi is expected to do is challenge the legitimacy of last weekend's elections, as well as recent changes to the constitution that strengthened the military's grip on power.
Suu Kyi is one of Myanmar's estimated 2,000 political prisoners. Formerly known as Burma, the country has been under military rule since 1962.
