Sultan Ali Keshtmand torture and long imprisonment. He remained in prison and was sentenced to death, but this decision was revoked and he was resentenced to 15 years in prison. On December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, bringing Babrak Karmal and the Parcham faction to power. Keshtmand was released from jail, and was once again joined the Politburo. Friction among the People's Party members rose in 1980 when Karmal removed Assadullah Sarwari from his position as First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and replaced him with Sultan Ali Keshtmand. Keshtmand, a Parchami, soon became one of the most important leaders
Sultan Ali Sultan Ali Sultan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Baqir 'Ali ibn Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn al-Husayn was the son of the fifth imam of Twelver Shii Muslims and fourth imam of Ismaili Shii Muslims, Muhammad al-Baqir. Born in Medina, 'Ali, known in Iran as "Sultan 'Ali," was dispatched by his father to the areas of Kashan and Qom, where he served as a Friday prayer leader and teacher; his popularity and his preaching of Shii Islam proved threatening to the local representative of the Umayyad dynasty. The Umayyad representative's forces cornered and killed Sultan 'Ali and a band of his supporters, after