Protester Phil Ball has been charged with trespass after he and other Greenpeace protesters were arrested in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, when they tried to prevent the first oil from the Arctic coming to the market in Europe.

Mr Ball was arrested yesterday at a Greenpeace protest in Rotterdam trying to board the oil tanker Mikhail Ulyanov at about 6am.

As one of Greenpeace’s Arctic 30, the 42-year-old from Milton-under-Wychwood was held prisoner by the Russian authorities for 100 days after trying to board a Russian oil platform to protest about drilling in the Arctic last year.

This is the same oil, from the same rig, for which he was arrested last year.

He was last night being held by Dutch authorities.