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The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority’s case against 34 past and present Essendon players is on the brink of collapse after failing to produce their two key witnesses to substantiate their charges.
On Monday, ASADA informed a directions hearing in Melbourne that it has been unable to secure the testimony of biochemist Shane Carter and compounding pharmacist Nima Alavi for the December 15 tribunal.
The case against the Essendon players largely rests on the allegation that Charter imported the banned peptide thymosin beta-4, who then had it compounded by Alavi, and was finally administered to the Essendon players by Stephen Dank.
However, as Alavi and Charter are not contracted employees of Essendon, they are not currently legally obliged to appear at the AFL anti-doping panel. ASADA may seek a subpoena through the Supreme Court to make the pair appear – but even then, Alavi and Charter would not be required to answer questions.
After numerous interviews with ASADA, the witnesses have signalled that they intend to have no further involvement with the case – refusing to provide an affidavit for the evidence they gave, nor appear at the tribunal.
Mr Alavi told The Australian: “I will not be signing the affidavit as I am not compelled to do so.”
Dean Robinson, former Essendon fitness chief has stated that he would be prepared to provide evidence on behalf of the players if required, but this will be little comfort to ASADA, as he maintains that he “can’t talk to… what happened behind closed doors, that I wasn’t privy to”, and to his knowledge, Dank never administered thymosin beta-4.
David Jones, head of the AFL’s anti-doping tribunal has decided that the tribunal will continue as scheduled.
“The hearing of the proceedings was confirmed to commence on December 15, 2014, to continue for a number of days prior to Christmas and then resume on January 12, 2015.”
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