Newly appointed Chief Justice Md Raus Sharif has expressed hope that the time taken for criminal cases to reach the Federal Court would take less than three years.

In his first press conference after his appointment today, the chief justice pointed out how murder trials, before reforms made by his predecessors Zaki Azmi and Arifin Zakaria, would sometimes take up to 10 years to reach the Federal Court.

"(But) recently one case (which I heard took) about four years, and we are going to reduce the time frame.

"If we can do it in one year in the High Court, nine months in the Court of Appeal and nine months in the Federal Court, that would be great.

"It can be earlier but that's the target," said Md Raus...