The FIA has so far refused to comment on the reasoning behind the new statutes.

BBC Sport has asked for comment specifically on Schmerold’s accusations but has received no response.

Schmerold said that Ben Sulayem and head of legal affairs Paul O’Dowd had responded to his objections when he raised them on Tuesday.

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.

“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.”

Schmerold said he did not agree with this line of argument.

“If we cannot rely on the integrity of a senate member then we have another issue,” he said.

“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.”

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.

The president of the senate, Carmelo Sanz De Barros, is a member of Ben Sulayem’s four-person leadership team.

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.”

He said he was also concerned by a new practice adopted by the FIA leadership in tabling proposals.

“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.

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.