Lil' Kim Going F.R.E.E.

Call it Lil' Kim's Independence Day.

The diminutive rap diva, sentenced to a year in prison after being convicted last year of lying to a federal grand jury about a 2001 shootout, is getting out early on good behavior.

Kim, known to the folks at the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center by her full name, Kimberly Jones, is due to be sprung on Monday at 6 a.m. She will remain under house arrest for an additional 30 days.

"I am thrilled to be coming home," the 30-year-old hip-hopster says via publicist Tracy Nguyen. "I thank all my fans for all their letters, as well as my family and friends for all their support throughout the past 10 months."

"We are pleased that Kim is coming home to start the next phase of her life," her entertainment lawyer, L. Londell McMillan, adds. "She has accepted responsibility and handled herself in an exemplary manner."

News of her impending freedom was first announced by Lil' Kim's mother, Ruby, and brother Christopher backstage at Tuesday's BET Awards.

The Queen Bee was found guilty of federal perjury charges on Mar. 17, 2005 for lying repeatedly to a grand jury probing the 2001 gunfight outside the New York's Hot 97 headquarters involving Kim's Junior M.A.F.I.A. crew and rival hip-hopsters Capone-N-Noreaga and Foxy Brown.

Police blamed bad blood between the two camps and Brown's trash-talking of Kim earlier that day on the radio for sparking the violence that left one man seriously injured with a bullet in the back.

During the trial, prosecutors asserted the pint-sized entertainer knowingly told some pretty "preposterous lies" to the grand jury to protect two members of her posse. Kim falsely claimed she had no relationship with one of the triggermen, Suif "Gutter" Jackson, a longtime friend and bodyguard, and said that another, manager Damion Butler, was not present at the time of the shooting.

She also took the stand and defended her conduct before the grand jury, saying for instance that in all the confusion after the incident she didn't recognize a photo of Jackson that police had presented to her.

Kim's attorney, Mel Sachs, denied his client committed wrongdoing and initially portrayed her as a victim of a government "witch-hunt" against gangsta rappers.

But the panel didn't buy it, especially after federal prosecutors screened a security video showing the Grammy-winning "Lady Marmalade" standing with Butler outside the station after the shooting.

It wasn't until after her conviction, with Kim staring down the possibility of a 20-year sentence, that she finally 'fessed up.

"I testified falsely during the grand jury and during trial. At the time I thought it was the right thing to do, but I know it was wrong," she told the court, calling herself a "God-fearing good person."

Hoping to avoid a lengthy term, she urged fans to write the judge in the case and politely ask for leniency before sentencing.

Apparently, her last-minute pleas for mercy paid off. Like fellow perjurer

Martha Stewart, Lil' Kim got off relatively easy; U.S. District Judge Gerald Lynch gave her a year and a day and fined her $50,000, though he noted that she could get out early if she behaved.

Jones reported to prison on Sept. 19, but not before taping a reality series that BET aired earlier this year chronicling the days leading up to her incarceration. Her latest album, The Naked Truth, hit stores one week later.