Brezhnev Son-in-Law to Face Trial on Corruption Charges

The son-in-law of Leonid I. Brezhnev, the late Soviet president, will go on trial here shortly on charges of corruption, the deputy state prosecutor said today.

Yuri Churbanov, who rose under Brezhnev’s patronage to be the country’s first deputy minister of internal affairs, is accused of taking bribes of more than $1.1 million. He could be sentenced to death for economic crimes if convicted.

Alexander F. Katusev, the deputy procurator general, told the newspaper Sovietskaya Rossiya that the case against Churbanov, who was arrested in January of 1987, has been sent to the Supreme Court for an early trial.

Churbanov, who in his old post was one of the country’s top policemen, will be tried with eight former officials, including the minister of interior, his two deputies and five senior police officers, from the Soviet Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan. Two other suspects, also senior Uzbek officials, committed suicide during the investigation.

After a five-year investigation by more than 100 detectives from around the country, Churbanov was interrogated for another six months and pressed to make a confession, but he apparently has refused.