Yemen Nobel Peace winner Tawakkul Karman denied entry into Egypt

Officials say that Yemen's Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman has been denied entry into Egypt after she landed at Cairo airport.

Karman, the first Arab woman to win the Nobel Peace prize, has stated her opposition to the military coup that ousted fellow Islamist Mohammed Morsi on July 3 after days of mass protests in which millions of Egyptians demanded that he step down.

She said she had intended to join the larger of two sit-in protests by Morsi supporters in the Egyptian capital.

The Cairo airport officials said Karman was sent back on the Sunday flight that brought her to Cairo from the United Arab Emirates.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Karman’s Twitter account confirmed she was held at Cairo airport and prevented from traveling to Rabaa Adaweya Square, where the largest pro-Morsi sit-in has been stationed since the president was removed from power.

Karman called the July 3 overthrow of Egypt’s President Morsi a “coup,” retracting her earlier support for protests against him.

"I have fallen victim to a big conspiracy I did not know the dimensions of, and apologize to all of the free world for my participation in demanding the resignation of the first president elected democratically in Egypt," Karman said on her Facebook page.

Head of the nonprofit group Women Journalists Without Chains, Karman played an active role in 2011 uprisings in Yemen calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. Saleh, who had led the country since 1978, ceded power to current president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi last year.

Al Jazeera and wire services