Italy's Supreme Court upheld the prison sentence given to the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for tax fraud, BBC News reported on Thursday.

The 76-year-old Berlusconi faces house arrest or community service instead of going to jail, due to his age. Berlusconi's attorneys asked the judges at Rome's Court of Cassation to overturn the one-year jail sentence and political ban leveled against him.

Berlusconi had been sentenced to four years in prison. The judicial review of the five year ban from public office enables Berlusconi to remain as a senator and leader of his People of Freedom Party. Berlusconi had been labeled as the "author of a whole system of tax fraud."

His appeals remain pending in regards to his conviction for paying for sex with an underage prostitute and for arranging for a police wiretap to be leaked and published in a newspaper. Prosecutors argued Berlusconi had sex 13 times with Karima el Mahroug, theunderage prostitute of Moroccan descent. 

Berlusconi may have paid el Mahroug and scores of other young women for taking part in "bunga bunga parties" at his private residence in Milan. Tawdry tales emanating from those parties have emerged, with young women reportedly performed stripteases and erotic action in exchange for money and gifts. 

Berlusconi has dismissed all charges against him. He has called the charges part of a personal "vendetta" against him.