BEIRUT: A Lebanese activist and blogger who was refused entry at Cairo airport has said he will attempt to return to Egypt in the future. Imad Bazzi was detained at Cairo airport Monday after he arrived on a tourist visa to work on a development project and was told he could not enter the country, he told The Daily Star Tuesday. He was then escorted onto a plane back to Beirut.

“For sure, I will be going back,” he said. “They can try that once or twice, but as long as I can get a visa from Beirut, I’m still going to Egypt.”

Bazzi is the executive director of CyberACT, an organization dedicated to Internet freedom, and tweets and blogs under the name Trella.

He has been active online in supporting the revolution in Egypt and has made two trips to the country since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak’s government, both times also on tourist visas.

He was not given specific reasons for his detention, but rights groups, including Beirut-based media watchdog SKeyes, have speculated that it may be connected to a meeting with jailed Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil. Bazzi is also currently in the process of making a documentary about Egyptian activists.

“The minute I arrived in Egypt, although I had a visa issued from the Egyptian Embassy in Beirut, they took me in to custody,” Bazzi told The Daily Star Tuesday. “They told me … I was on the blacklist and could not enter Egypt.”

Based on the questions he was asked, Bazzi believes his detention was connected broadly to his online activism and his support for the Arab Spring.

“I had lots of visitors coming in [while I was in detention], dressed like civilians but escorted by police,” Bazzi said. “They asked me about Wael Abbas, an Egyptian blogger, about another Egyptian activist called Mina Zekri. They asked me if I was one of ‘the Facebook boys’ … there was definitely a focus on my online activism.”

“It might [also] be my relation to and meeting with Nabil.”

Human rights groups have called for the release of Nabil, who was convicted in April for criticizing the armed forces and sentenced to three years in prison. U.S. lawmakers have sent a letter to the Egyptian military, urging his release.

One of those groups, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, also released a statement Monday condemning the decision to detain Bazzi.

Bazzi said he was disappointed by the reaction of the Egyptian authorities.

“At first I refused to believe that Egypt before the revolution is the same as Egypt after the revolution,” he said. “But now, I think … what they did is they changed the head of the regime, and substituted one regime for another.”

He said based on what he was told at the airport and information given to him by rights organizations he was detained on orders from the ruling military council, rather than the Interior Ministry.

“When I got back to Beirut, the customs guy asked me why I had been deported. I told him he’d have to call [the head of the military council Mohammad Tantawi] and ask,” he said.

“It’s up to the Egyptians to choose who rules their country,” he said. “My interest is just in human rights.”

Bazzi now says he won’t be deterred from returning to Egypt.

“I’m planning to go back to Egypt, I’m planning to work in Egypt. Whatever I do there is not connected to my online activism. I’m just there to have a decent job, and to work,” he said.

Bazzi said he also believes that online support will provide a significant challenge to future detentions.

“If they won’t let me in, I can escalate. They don’t have as much support as I do,” he said, meaning “whoever tries to crack down on human rights and liberties.”

While in detention, Bazzi maintained contact online using his BlackBerry, quickly garnering attention on social media website Twitter.

“I’m not alone, that’s why I’m not concerned,” he said.