Brazil's Lula to face new corruption probe judge on Wednesday

Former Brazil president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be questioned next week in relation to another Operation Car Wash case in which he is accused of corruption and money laundering.

The 73-year-old is already serving a 12-year prison sentence for accepting a bribe in a separate case related to the ongoing and wide-ranging Car Wash investigation into graft.

Questioning Lula, currently incarcerated in Curitiba in the south of Brazil, will be judge Gabriela Hardt, who has taken over the Car Wash investigation from the man who jailed the ex-president, Sergio Moro, recently named Justice Minister by president-elect Jair Bolsonaro.

That appointment was controversial as left-wing icon Lula's incarceration prevented him from running in a presidential election he was widely expected to win, having led polls with more than twice the number of vote intentions as his nearest challenger, Bolsonaro.

Lula's lawyers have asked for his release and the suspension of the charges against him, accusing Moro of bias.

"Lula is the victim of a judicial witch-hunt unleashed by an agent wearing a judge's gown ... who sought to cancel his freedom and rights," said the lawyers.

Moro replied to that on Tuesday in a press conference insisting that Lula "was convicted and jailed because he committed a crime and not because of the elections."