Rome (CNN) -- Italy's high court has upheld a prison sentence for former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in a tax fraud case.

The court Thursday said it supported a lower court's four-year prison sentence for Berlusconi.

Three years of that sentence are covered in an amnesty aimed at cutting down on prison overcrowding, effectively reducing Berlusconi's sentence to one year.

The high court also ordered a lower court to reconsider whether Berlusconi, 76, should be banned from public office -- a controversial issue that could play a key role in the country's political future.

A lower court convicted Berlusconi of tax evasion last October, sentencing him to four years in prison and barring him from public office for five years. In May, an Italian appeals court in Milan upheld that decision.

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