Three top intelligence officials were removed on Monday in the most abrupt shake-up of Italy’s espionage community since the current structures were established almost 30 years ago. The government of Romano Prodi removed the chief of the national military intelligence agency, whom prosecutors want to put on trial for involvement in the suspected kidnapping by CIA agents of an Egyptian imam in February 2003. It also replaced the head of the domestic secret service and the chief of an intelligence co-ordinating committee that reports to the political authorities.The shake-up signalled the determination of the centre-left prime minister to assert his authority in this most delicate of policy arenas. Pino Sgobio, a communist parliamentarian and member of Mr Prodi’s ruling coalition, said he hoped that the new intelligence chiefs would work in a transparent manner “after the recent dark years of their predecessors”.