Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s opposition leader, has been appointed Prime Minister

The sultan’s palace said Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim @anwaribrahim was named prime minister on Thursday and will take office at 5 p.m. (0900 GMT).

The appointment of Anwar marks the culmination of a three-decade journey that saw him go from heir apparent to prisoner convicted of sodomy to the longtime opposition leader.

The 75-year-old has been denied the premiership several times despite coming close: he was deputy prime minister in the 1990s and official prime minister-in-waiting in 2018. In between, he was imprisoned for nearly a decade for sodomy and corruption, which he claims were politically motivated accusations intended to put an end to his career.