 Due to his rebellious nature and unique passion for standing up for the discriminated and downtrodden, he was imprisoned repeatedly, both by Sukarno and by Sukarno's rival and successor Suharto, spending a total of eight and a half years in prison.The decoration he got from Sukarno – a small five-pointed bronze star on which were etched the words "Pahlawan Gerilja" (Guerrilla Hero), and which Princen conspicuously displayed until the end of his days – was to give him at least some protection from the most harsh forms of repression to which successive Indonesian regimes resorted against many other dissidents and political opponents.Soon after the war Princen got married again – to the Dutch Janneke Marckmann (until 1971) and later to Sri Mulyati, who was to remain his companion until his death.