Former Bolivian President Jeanine Anez has been sentenced to 10 years in jail over what prosecutors say was a coup to oust her predecessor Evo Morales, BBC reported.

A court found Anez, who was in office in 2019-20, guilty of making "decisions contrary to the constitution."

Anez has repeatedly said she is the victim of a political vendetta.

Anez, 54, was convicted by the court in La Paz on Friday. The court said she would serve her term in a women's prison in the city.

The former president has denounced what she describes as political persecution by Morales' Mas Socialist party, which won a landslide victory in presidential and congressional elections in 2020, paving the way for Morales to return to Bolivia from Argentina and take over the party leadership.

His colleague Luis Arce was elected president.

Evo Morales had quit and fled Bolivia after the chief of the army urged him to step down amid protests over allegations of vote rigging.

As the most senior senator, Anez became caretaker president after Morales fled. But members of the Mas party accused her, in cahoots with police and military figures, of engineering his overthrow.

She was detained in March 2021.

After Friday's verdict, Jeanine Anez's defense said she would appeal to international organizations to seek justice.