News Investigators/ Saudi Arabia’s top religious cleric, the Grand Mufti Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, passed on at the age of 82,The Royal Court announced his death on Tuesday, marking the end of an era in Saudi Arabia’s religious leadership. He served as the Kingdom’s Grand Mufti since 1999. The funeral prayers would be held in the capital Riyadh and other mosques across the kingdom later Tuesday, it added. The Grand Mufti in Muslim-dominated countries interprets Islamic laws and issues fatwas, which are religious edicts. A year later, the kingdom hosted an international chess tournament as it began to take major steps to open up.