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LOS ANGELES — A judge Tuesday let stand former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive Sara Jane Olson’s guilty plea to possessing bombs with intent to murder policemen after questioning her about why she later insisted she was innocent. 

Olson was summoned by Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler because of her claims of innocence to reporters immediately after pleading last week. 

“I want to make it clear, your honor, I did not make that bomb,” Olson said. “I did not possess that bomb. I did not plant that bomb. But under the concept of aiding and abetting I do plead guilty.” 

“Because you are in fact guilty?” the judge asked. 

“Yes,” she said. 

Fidler began the hearing by demanding that Olson decide if she wanted to reaffirm her plea or continue to declare innocence outside court. 

“The guilty plea is not a waystation on the way to a press conference to claim one’s innocence,” the judge said. 

“The integrity of the criminal justice system requires that she make a choice,” he added. “She cannot have it both ways.” 

In the end the judge declared, “The court now finds the plea entered on Oct. 31 will stand. She is guilty as she has indicated under the concept of aiding and abetting.” 

Olson had been charged in a 1976 indictment with attempting to murder Los Angeles police officers in 1975 by planting bombs under police cars to avenge the deaths of six members of the radical SLA in a shootout with police in 1974. 

She was a fugitive until her arrest in Minnesota in 1999. After many trial delays, she entered her plea, saying the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks made a fair trial unlikely. 

Olson’s attorney, J. Tony Serra, explained to the judge that Olson decided to plead guilty under the concept of aiding and abetting. 

“What she meant is, ’I did not factually do that,”’ Serra said. 

“But she knows that without planting or making the bomb she can be guilty of possessing it ... we want to maintain the plea under the concept of aiding and abetting.” 

The judge then read to Olson the law as it applies to the crime and those who act as aiders and abetters, telling her that all conspirators are guilty whether or not they personally participate. 

“The act of one conspirator in furtherance of a crime is an act of all conspirators,” he said. 

“With that in mind, Ms. Olson, my question is, are you guilty of the crimes to which you pled guilty?” 

Olson hesitated and her lawyers asked for time to confer. After about 10 minutes they returned and she made her statement. 

Prosecutors and the defense continued to disagree over what her ultimate sentence may be. 

The judge said his only requirement was that Olson understand that she could receive a life term if a parole board should decide to extend her sentence. 

She said she understood it was not the present position of prosecutors that she should receive such a dire sentence. Her lawyers have said she is likely to receive five years and four months at her Dec. 7 sentencing. 

“And you want your plea to stand?” the judge asked again. Olson again hesitated, looked to her lawyers and shook her head affirmatively. 

“Is that yes?” asked the judge. 

“Yes,” Olson replied. 

The judge scheduled the hearing behind closed doors but instead held it in open court. The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times sent a letter of objection to the closure, but the judge never indicated if that was a factor in his change of plan. 

The plea sidestepped a trial in which prosecutors planned to bring in the history of SLA crimes, including those with no connection to Olson, in order to show her association with a violent group. 

Prosecutors planned to tie Olson to the bomb plot by showing she wrote a letter ordering fuses. They also intended to call Patty Hearst, the onetime SLA kidnap victim who became a member of the group, to testify that Olson was involved in the bombing plans. They also said they had Olson’s fingerprints from a San Francisco apartment where the bombs allegedly were constructed.