Julian Ichim’s G20 charges were dropped three years ago, but the longtime anti poverty activist was back in court Monday to fight two counts of violating a publication ban issued during his preliminary trial.

Ichim, 34, pleaded not guilty to twice revealing the pseudonym of an undercover police officer who befriended him before the G20 protests, in blog posts published in September 2011.

The identity of OPP Const. Bindo Showan — known as “Khalid Mohammed” in the activist groups he infiltrated — was protected by a publication ban at the time.

On Monday morning, Ichim’s lawyer Lorne Gershuny argued that the charges should be dismissed because the Crown is over-prosecuting the case.

The maximum penalty for violating a publication ban ordered under section 486.6 of the Criminal Code is six months in prison.

But the Crown chose to charge Ichim under a different section of the Criminal Code that allows violating a court order to be prosecuted as an indictable offence — carrying maximum punishment of two years in jail.

That section can only be applied if there is no penalty “expressly provided by law,” which there is in this case, Gershuny told the court.

The Crown defended its position by saying the publication ban also cites another part of the Criminal Code that contains no instructions for punishment.

Ichim says the Crown is unlawfully seeking a harsher penalty to intimidate protesters.

“The courts are being used as a political tool,” he said.

Justice Quigley will announce his decision Tuesday.

If the charges are not dismissed, Ichim says, they will argue that silencing him through the publication ban was an “abuse of process.”

If that fails, the case will proceed to a jury trial, where he will represent himself.

Ichim, who has been arrested dozens of times and once threw chocolate milk on Stockwell Day during a speech in 2000, was one of the first alleged G20 riot co-conspirators to be taken into custody. The charges were dropped months later.

He has also filed a lawsuit for $4 million in damages against Showan, the province and the Toronto police force.

He alleges that the undercover officer he once considered a good friend crossed a legal line by encouraging criminal acts and driving drunk ahead of the G20 summit.

“The defendant Showan attempted to manipulate the Plaintiff into making decisions that were objectively not in the interests of the Plantiff and instead were in the interests of the police,” the notice of claim states.

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It also alleges Ichim was beaten by Toronto police and underwent “cruel and unusual treatment” in the G20 temporary jail.

The claims have not been proven in court. Ichim has yet to receive statements of defence from the three parties, he said.