Double Defector Reported Killed by Firing Squad

WASHINGTON — The United States has no independent confirmation of a report that Soviet double defector Vitaly Yurchenko was executed by a firing squad in the Soviet Union, a White House spokesman said today.

National Public Radio quoted Administration sources as saying that, in keeping with Soviet capital punishment cases, Yurchenko’s family was required to pay for ammunition used by the firing squad as a symbol that the family is responsible for actions of all its members.

White House deputy spokesman Edward Djerejian said the Yurchenko report is “an old story” put out about three weeks ago by European sources.

Yurchenko defected in Rome last August and came to the United States where he was debriefed by the CIA. Yurchenko walked away from a CIA handler at a restaurant last November and, at a news conference at the Soviet Embassy, accused the CIA of drugging him.