Myanmar's Supreme Court announced yesterday that it would hold a hearing on October 18 on detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's latest appeal against her house arrest.
The judges will decide whether to consider the "special appeal", according to a notice posted in front of the Supreme Court in the former capital Yangon.
The Nobel peace laureate's current term of house arrest is due to end on November 13, just days after national elections that critics say are aimed at simply entrenching the junta's power.
Suu Kyi lodged the last-ditch appeal in May. She has already had her appeal rejected twice, most recently by the Supreme Court in February. Court verdicts in the army-ruled country rarely favour opposition activists.
The democracy icon, who has spent most of the past two decades locked up, had her detention lengthened by 18 months in August last year after being convicted over a bizarre incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home.
The extension of her detention after a prison trial sparked international outrage as it effectively keeps her off the stage for the elections.