On Friday, an Istanbul court sentenced a Turkish man to 11 years and eight months in prison for attempting to assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last year.

Ferhat Yıldız attempted to shoot Erdoğan, then prime minister, during a political event in Istanbul's Sultangazi district on May 31, 2014.

According to the indictment, Yıldız approached Erdoğan's car within three meters while it was passing through the crowd and pulled the trigger of a gun he bought just before the event, but the gun failed to fire.

Erdoğan's bodyguards intervened before Yıldız could make a second attempt.

Yıldız told the court that he went to the incident area to protest and had no intention to kill Erdoğan. "I am very regretful even if I (only) went there to protest (him)," he said.