The 43-year-old former Illinois student next appears before a federal judge on Wednesday in Charleston, South Carolina, a rare reprieve from deep isolation since president George W. Bush labeled him an enemy combatant in June 2003.

Then he was deprived of protections afforded under the US Constitution, raising one of the most vexing questions of the Bush administration: whether a US president has authority to detain terror suspects -- including legal US residents -- indefinitely without charge.

The dual Saudi-Qatari national legally entered the United States on September 10, 2001, with his wife and children. The next day Al-Qaeda launched its attacks, and Marri was arrested two months later in Illinois on credit card fraud charges.

The Defense Intelligence Agency accused him of being a "sleeper agent" who met terror mastermind Osama bin Laden and was assigned to hack into US financial system computers.

In a sworn affidavit from 2004, DIA analyst Jeffrey Rapp said the agency was eager to extract information from Marri, who "possesses information of high intelligence value, including information about personnel and activities of Al-Qaeda."

Marri's lawyer says he was tortured.

"They dry-boarded him, which is the same concept" as the waterboarding simulated drowning technique, Andrew Savage told AFP.

"They kept him in a (cold) environment, with no shoes, no mattress, pillow or blanket, no clothing, no chair. The windows were painted black."

The Defense Department says Marri has been detained in compliance with the Geneva Conventions.

"Our policy is and always has been to treat detainees humanely," spokesman J.D. Gordon said.

Savage insists Marri endured "horrible things," but that "even after being locked up for years without charge... he is not bitter."

The lawyer says conditions improved dramatically since the initial incarceration at the US Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston -- where Marri remains the lone inmate in a high-security wing of the facility.

The International Committee of the Red Cross gained access to Marri in late 2004, when military staff at the brig expressed discomfort with his harsh treatment.

"He remains in isolation, which is difficult, but the brig staff has recognized that and have done an outstanding job to compensate."

Prison officials could not comment on his detention, but both Savage and the US government say Marri now has access to television and a computer and to redacted newspapers.

He has more than 300 volumes of Islamic texts at his fingertips and exercises outdoors.

He was allowed to send a recently taken photograph to his family in Saudi Arabia -- in part, Savage said, to convince relatives he was not dead.

He enjoys watching "The Daily Show" -- a satirical US news program -- and is a passionate fan of auto racing.

"He knows all the drivers," Savage said. "Bush is a favorite," he added, referring to 2005 NASCAR rookie of the year Kyle Bush, not the president.

Savage brings Marri baked goods, "so that he can in turn give those items to the staff out of appreciation for how they're treating him," Savage said.

"He's been Americanized to some extent."

Richard Kohn, a history professor at University of North Carolina, said the improvement reflects "the gradual erosion of the Bush administration's position on detention by the Supreme Court," referring to several setbacks to the detention policies.

In December the court agreed to consider Marri's challenge of the authority to hold detainees without trial -- but not until April, after Bush's presidency, putting new President Barack Obama in the hot seat over his approach to fighting terrorism.

Obama broke with Bush and transferred Marri to federal custody, prompting the Supreme Court to scrap hearing Marri's case.

Hundreds of "enemy combatants" have been detained at the US war-on-terror prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which Obama has vowed to shut.

Marri will plead not guilty in his trial, said Savage, who recently met with Marri's relatives in Saudi Arabia, some of whom studied in the United States.

"They speak with pride about America, how America leads the world in democracy."

On Friday, Obama dropped the "enemy combatant" designation for terror suspects, and put forward a new policy based on international laws of war.

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