Baha Mousa had 93 separate injuries when he died in Sept 2003

Solicitor Phil Shiner will ask the High Court to order the Ministry of Defence to hand over documents relating to the 2003 death in Basra of Baha Mousa.

Baha Mousa, a hotel receptionist, died after he was allegedly tortured over a period of 36 hours by British troops.

His lawyers say the files will provide more evidence of the need for a full public inquiry.

Abuse claim

Mr Shiner told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme that bundles of previously undisclosed files were key to convincing Defence Secretary Des Browne to order such an inquiry.

"It's quite clear to me that there was systemic abuse and torture," Mr Shiner said of British troops on the ground in Iraq in the early stages of the war.

He urged Mr Browne to do the "decent thing and hold the inquiry into the UK's detention policy.

"I believe that in the end the truth will come out and sooner or later I will get to the bottom of it," Mr Shiner said of deaths in custody in Iraq.

Government resistance

In the case of Mr Mousa, seven members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR), which is now the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, faced the most expensive court martial in British history, but all were eventually acquitted.

One soldier, Corporal Donald Payne, 35, became the first British servicemen to admit a war crime, that of treating Iraqi prisoners inhumanely, and was jailed for a year.