The Russian prosecutor's office requested that the American journalist Evan Gershkovich be sentenced to 18 years in prison on charges of espionage, reports "Reuters", quoted by News.bg.
The Wall Street Journal reporter is expected to be sentenced within hours.
"The judge retired to the deliberation room to deliver the sentence. The verdict will be announced today at 5:00 p.m.," informed the press secretary of the court.
The sentence sought by prosecutors is two years less than the maximum 20 years under Russian espionage law.
The 32-year-old American journalist, who denies any wrongdoing, was tried behind closed doors last month in the city of Yekaterinburg.
Prosecutors allege that Gershkovich collected classified information at the behest of the US Central Intelligence Agency for a company that produced tanks for Russia's war in Ukraine.
Employees of the FSB security service arrested him on March 29 last year in an establishment in Yekaterinburg. Since then, he has been detained in Moscow's Lefortovo prison.
Gerskovich, the newspaper he works for and the US government deny the allegations and say he was simply doing his job as a reporter accredited by the State Department to work in Russia.
The Kremlin claims that Gershkovich was caught "at the scene of the crime".
U.S. officials have repeatedly dismissed the allegations as a hoax and said Russia was using Gershkovich and another detained American, former Marine Paul Whelan, as a bargaining chip for a possible prisoner swap.
Washington considers the two men "unlawfully detained" and assures that he is committed to returning them to their homeland.
President Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, says that Russia is open to a prisoner exchange involving Gershkovich and that there has been contact with the United States on the matter, but it must remain secret.