BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- A three-day preliminary hearing concluded Saturday and another was scheduled for Jan. 26 in the case of a U.S. air force fighter pilot charged with dereliction of duty for mistakenly bombing Canadians in Afghanistan.

Maj. Harry Schmidt faces up to six months in prison if convicted in a court martial. Four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight wounded when he dropped a 225-kilogram bomb near Kandahar in April, 2002, thinking their live-ammunition exercise was enemy anti-aircraft fire.

An air force judge considered eight pretrial motions in the hearing, including whether the government should be forced to release to the public more than 1,000 pages of documents related to the case.

Schmidt's court martial will take place sometime after the January hearing.

On Saturday, defence lawyer Charles Gittins told the judge, Col. Mary Boone, that he would subpoena an e-mail apparently sent to Fox News from the wife of air force Col. Lawrence Stutzriem, who testified at an earlier hearing in the case. Stutzriem, who at the time of the bombing was with the agency responsible for coalition air operations, testified that air force pilots had received orders warning that allied troops would use live ammunition in the area.

It was unclear what was in the e-mail sent to Fox. Gittins said he wanted to determine who actually sent the e-mail: Stutzriem or Stutzriem's wife.

Schmidt, 38, has said he released the laser-guided bomb because he mistook the Canadians for Taliban troops firing anti-aircraft weapons.

He and mission commander Maj. William Umbach, a fellow Illinois air national guard F-16 pilot, were originally charged with manslaughter and aggravated assault. However, Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, the 8th Air Force commander, recommended that the charges be dismissed and that Schmidt face possible administrative punishment instead.

Schmidt turned down the offer, and Carlson ordered the pilot tried on the lesser charge of dereliction of duty.

Gittins argued Friday that Carlson had made a decision to try Schmidt without consultation and advice from his staff judge advocate as required under military law.

As evidence that Carlson was dead-set on prosecuting Schmidt, Gittins noted a draft of a news release that was not sent to the media. The draft erroneously said Schmidt would face a court martial on all charges.

The version later sent to the media stated only that Schmidt would be court-martialled, but did not specify charges.

Lead government lawyer Col. John Odom countered Gittins' assertion, saying simple miscommunication was a more probable explanation for the draft press release.

Other motions Boone is considering deal with whether Gittins should be granted greater security clearance so he can talk with Schmidt in greater detail about his orders and his mission.

Boone said she would respond to motions next week.