Once again, allegations of the most serious nature have been made against the Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, who has been accused of sanctioning the murder of former close associate Denis Donaldson.
This disturbing claim was made in Tuesday night's BBC Spotlight programme, which interviewed a man said to be a former Special Branch agent within the IRA.
He said that the killing of Mr Donaldson in 2006, four months after he was exposed as an informer who had worked for the police and MI5, was carried out by the Provisional IRA and not dissident republicans as had been believed.
The former agent told the BBC this murder would have been sanctioned by Mr Adams.
Of course, it is difficult to test the veracity of this type of information.
We are dealing with a world that is so shadowy and secretive and with so many interests at play, that it is hard to tell what is real and what is designed to mislead.
People with no experience of this world may find these sort of claims far-fetched but we also know that some of the strangest and most unlikely tales have turned out to have some truth.
Few would have believed that someone like Denis Donaldson, a dedicated republican with trusted access to the highest echelons of republican movement, could have been working for the security forces for 20 years.
Yet with the passage of time it is becoming clear that the British security services had infiltrated the IRA to a wider extent than many would have realised and vice versa.
Mr Adams has strongly denied the claims made in the Spotlight programme and is threatening possible legal action.
He has been accused of terrible crimes before and has survived the fallout.
However, those claims related to historical events while the murder of Denis Donaldson took place while Sinn Féin was preparing to return to government at Stormont.
While many questions are being asked about state actions during the Troubles, there is also an onus on republicans to tell the full story of their part in the conflict.
