The casket carrying the body of Ion Iliescu, Romania’s first elected president after the bloody fall of communism in 1989, was transferred on Wednesday from the hospital where he died to the capital’s presidential palace for a state funeral as the late leader’s death continues to divide opinion.

He was Romania's first freely elected leader after communism fell in 1989, and later faced charges of crimes against humanity.

Iliescu, who held de facto military authority during the anticommunist revolt, assumed power after Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and his wife Elena, were executed on Dec. 25, 1989.