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.

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.

Ion Iliescu, Romania's first leader after the collapse of the Ceausescu dictatorship, died at 95. He saw himself as a savior, but was accused of crimes against humanity in the 1989 revolution.