\n<\/p>\n
The FIA has so far refused to comment on the reasoning behind the new statutes.<\/p>\n
BBC Sport has asked for comment specifically on Schmerold’s accusations but has received no response.<\/p>\n
Schmerold said that Ben Sulayem and head of legal affairs Paul O’Dowd had responded to his objections when he raised them on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
He said: “The answer of the president and the head of legal was that in order to protect the [identity of] individuals who might be subject to investigation from being published to a broader audience it needed to be kept to a very close group.<\/p>\n
“Their argument goes that not to share reports of the ethics committee with the full senate protects the individuals from being displayed to a broader public. Whoever might be subject of an investigation.”<\/p>\n
Schmerold said he did not agree with this line of argument.<\/p>\n
“If we cannot rely on the integrity of a senate member then we have another issue,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The senate consists of 16 individuals who see the report. We must have the trust that they will deal with the subject in an appropriate way. I would rather have it with 16 people, the majority of whom are really independent, than a close group of only two who are not independent from each other.”<\/p>\n
Schmerold added that a proposed new statute that dictates that, in the event either the FIA president or the president of the senate is investigated, the other receives the report, was also a concern because the two men are allies.<\/p>\n
The president of the senate, Carmelo Sanz De Barros, is a member of Ben Sulayem’s four-person leadership team.<\/p>\n
Schmerold said: “There is a strong link between the individuals and if only the two of them are responsible for the control, it’s not independent any more.”<\/p>\n
He said he was also concerned by a new practice adopted by the FIA leadership in tabling proposals.<\/p>\n
“This time, as with the proposal in June this year, the world councils were only asked to vote by e-vote, without a meeting, without a discussion, and in parallel to the e-vote of the world council the documents were already sent out to all the members in the general assembly,” he said.<\/p>\n
Schmerold is not attending the general assembly in person in order “to show our distance to the current developments” and said the Austrian federation would vote remotely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n