The latest battle in what counterterrorism experts call “legal jihad” is now raging in Richmond’s 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ali al-Marri, then a 37-year-old Qatari here on a student visa, was arrested in Peoria, Ill., as a material witness a month after Sept. 11 and has since been held as an “enemy combatant.” One of his attorneys said Friday that the government’s case is based on “hearsay” from allegedly tortured terror suspects.