TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Indonesia bears no obligation to prevent its citizens from becoming mercenaries in Russia, said Hikmahanto Juwana, an international law professor from the University of Indonesia. “The state does not prevent [the citizens], but every Indonesian citizen must be aware of the consequences,” he said on Sunday, January 18, 2026.
Hikmahanto’s remark came against the backdrop of recent news where an Indonesian citizen became a mercenary in Russia. An Aceh regional police mobile brigade (Brimob), Second Brigadier Muhammad Rio, was declared a deserter and revealed to have become a Russian mercenary.
This was not the first case. Earlier, a former…