Law of any goverment enforcement.... if a goverment official (paul a hired hand)... does not do his duty or compramises there values... they are most likely to be imprisoned or sacked or even taken out... depending on the severity...
Paul was doing his Job for the jewish king whoever that Jewish king was at the time..or shall i say the Jewish elders..
My impression of Paul he felt he was doing the just thing under the Jewish law.
Christians were just another group of blasphemers who he wanted to deal with.
The High Priest liked him and agreed to give him letters to arrest more followers.
They rightly saw this sect as a serious threat to the very existance of Israel.
But I received mercy because
I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
1 tim 1:13-14
Paul pointed to his heart state, that he thought christians were wrong when they were not.
He knew why he was doing it and never did he hate believers, he just felt they were wrong.