ARGENTINIAN Vice-President Cristina Fernandez was convicted of fraud on Tuesday and sentenced to six years in prison, plus a lifetime ban on holding public office.

Ms Fernandez was found guilty over a scheme that embezzled $1 billion (£818 million) through public works projects during her presidency.

A three-judge panel found the Peronist leader guilty of fraud but rejected a charge of running a criminal organisation, for which the sentence could have been 12 years’ imprisonment.

It was the first time an Argentine vice-president has been convicted of crime while in office.

Ms Fernandez lashed out at the verdict, describing herself as the victim of a “judicial mafia.” But she later announced that she would not stand next year for the presidency, a post she previously held from 2007 to 2015.

The sentence isn’t final until appeals have been decided, a process that could take years.

Ms Fernandez’s supporters vowed to paralyse the country with a nationwide strike.

They clogged central Buenos Aires and marched on the federal court building, beating drums and shouting as they pressed against police barriers.

Ms Fernandez, Argentina’s dominant leader this century, denied all the accusations against her.

The verdict is certain to deepen fissures in the South American nation, where the 69-year-old populist leader is either loved or hated.

President Alberto Fernandez, who is not related to his vice-president, wrote on Twitter that she was innocent and that her conviction was “the result of a trial in which the minimum forms of due process were not taken care of.”

Prosecutors said that Ms Fernandez had fraudulently directed 51 public works projects to Lazaro Baez, a construction magnate and early ally of her and her husband Nestor Kirchner, who served as president in 2003-07 and died suddenly in 2010.

Mr Baez was also sentenced to six years in jail.

Prosecutors alleged that the Baez company was created to embezzle revenues through improperly bid projects that suffered from cost overruns and in many cases were never completed.

During the judicial process, the vice-president described herself as a victim of “lawfare” and characterised the judiciary as a pawn of the opposition media and conservative politician Mauricio Macri, who succeeded her as president in 2015.

Ms Fernandez, the main leader of the Peronist movement’s left wing, faces other legal challenges, including a charge of alleged money-laundering that also involves her son and daughter.