ASADA’S bid to subpoena two key witnesses in its case against the “Essendon 34” has been delayed.

Supreme Court justice Clyde Croft this morning adjourned a joint bid by ASADA and the AFL to have Shane Charter and Nima Alavi forced to give evidence in this month’s anti-doping tribunal hearings.

The matter will be heard next Wednesday at 10am.

Charter briefly attended the hearing in the public gallery, while Alavi was represented by legal counsel, who raised concerns their client’s rights could be “trampled on” by the application.

ASADA told the court that the application was “a matter of urgency”. A lawyer for the AFL told the court it was concerned about one of the witnesses “travelling overseas” to avoid the tribunal process.

Daniel Star, for ASADA, said the chief executive of the anti-doping agency had only become aware that the witnesses would no longer give statements on Friday of last week.

media_camera Shane Charter outside the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court today where he is fighting separate criminal charges of trafficking and possessing steroids and prohibited growth hormones. Picture: Hamish Blair

He said ASADA notified the AFL Tribunal on Sunday and received permission to make the application to the Supreme Court on Monday.

Mr Star said there was “no doubt that the witnesses’ evidence was relevant” to the tribunal and the key issue for the court to decide was whether provisions in the Commercial Arbitration Act would apply.

Justice Croft noted that the application was a “very serious matter - sanctions for disobeying an order are severe”.

Mr Star tendered an affidavit outlining ASADA’s attempts to serve notice of the court action on the support person - believed to be Stephen Dank - also facing tribunal action.

Mr Star said ASADA had not yet been successful in serving notice on Dank.

Charter had also not been served, he said.

Justice Croft asked Star for how long ASADA had known Charter and Alavi would be relevant witnesses, to which he replied: “for a long time ... but they were relatively cooperative until late last week”.

David Grace, QC, acting on behalf of 32 of the 34 affected players, questioned whether ASADA had standing to make the application and urged the AFL to make any further applications, in case the court next week found ASADA was not a party to the action.

The AFL’s lawyer Renee Enbom said all parties were “working hard to start (tribunal hearings) on December 15”.

She said there was concern one of the witnesses may flee overseas in a bid to avoid the tribunal.

“There is evidence before the court that one party has indicated he might travel overseas to avoid proceedings,” she said.

Alavi’s lawyer Tony Rodbard-Bean said he had been inundated with documents provided by ASADA this morning and said the anti-doping body had been the author of its own latest strife.

“It must have been contemplated that material witnesses may or may not co-operate,” he said.

“We do not wish to be trampled on by the AFL and ASADA trying to get their house in order.”

After Charter exited the public gallery, Mr Star noted he had been present and had left.

Justice Croft asked: “do you want me to infer that he doesn’t want to be heard?” to which Star replied, “yes”.

Charter is refusing to appear at the tribunal, claiming ASADA tried to manipulate his evidence to secure doping charges against the players.

He told the Herald Sun he feared the Essendon players were being dudded by the process.

“I understand ASADA is doing their job, but they have to be fair about the way they do it,” Charter said.

Asked whether he thought that the accused Bombers players were being treated unfairly, Charter said: “That’s the bottom line.”

Charter’s comments are a further blow to ASADA, as he is the agency’s main witness in the case against the current and former Essendon players accused of doping.

The biochemist has refused to sign an affidavit or testify in the case, which is due to be heard by the AFL Tribunal on December 15, prompting ASADA to take the extraordinary step today of seeking a Supreme Court subpoena to force Charter to appear.

However, ASADA will proceed without him if it has to do so.

The Herald Sun has learned that the anti-doping agency has possession of hours of tape recordings of investigators’ interviews with Charter and Alavi.

SHANE CHARTER, NIMA ALAVI HOLD ASADA CASE IN THEIR HANDS

ASADA SEEKS SUBPOENAS AGAINST SHANE CHARTER, NIMA ALAVI

The tapes, detailing the pair’s involvement in Essendon’s 2012 supplements program, are expected to be played to the tribunal.

Asked about Charter’s claims last night, an ASADA spokesman said: “We will vigorously present our case to the tribunal.”

Charter has a colourful past and it was anticipated that lawyers for the players would fiercely attack his character in the course of defending the doping allegations.

ASADA has been seeking the sworn statement from Charter for several weeks.

But Charter yesterday claimed the document was only in draft form and “incomplete”.

He claimed to have been concerned that ASADA had deliberately left out parts of his testimony because it did not suit their case.

“In any discussion there’s some back and forth. They had a particular agenda. We got to points of difference.

“They wanted to amend things, change things, remove things and we couldn’t agree,” Charter said.

He had been unavailable for meetings with ASADA in recent weeks owing to family commitments, he said.

“It was incomplete. We got three-quarters of the way through it and I had other things to deal with.”

Charter said the unfinished document also did not contain any of the new evidence he recently discovered in one of his former offices in China.

That evidence is believed to be a document that suggests Dank had ordered a permitted form of thymosin from him.

The case as it stands alleges that Dank only ever ordered the banned form, Thymosin beta 4, from Charter.

In recent weeks, Charter enlisted underworld figure Mick Gatto to sell this “new evidence” to the media.

Charter said while he had no ill-will towards ASADA, he would not appear at the tribunal voluntarily.

“Now that they’ve gone down that path, when you’re pushed into a corner you tend to dig your heels in,” he said.

“I don’t like going to court any day of the week, let alone going when I don’t have to,” he said.

Charter, who is facing mounting legal bills, was weighing up yesterday whether to fight the subpoena.

The AFL is understood to have supported ASADA’s subpoena bid.

Charter is fighting separate criminal charges of trafficking and possessing steroids and prohibited growth hormones.

That case was also listed for mention before a magistrate today.