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.

"To understand Iliescu, you must grasp the complexity of Romania's 1990s," says political analyst Teodor Tita. "He was neither a simple hero, nor a straightforward villain. He emb

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.